BW 2: Setting the Board
by Karra Greenfield
Summary: Beast Wars Universe: In chess every piece has its specific move, but its the mind behind the lines that determines if the game is won or lost. Can Ruby survive the most important 'game' of her life?
1. Ch 01: The Probe

Chapter 1 –The Probe

It had been several weeks since Optimus Primal's 'gorilla warfare' on the Predacon base. The Maximal commander had made a full recovery and was back to being in full command. Skirmishes had come and gone in the passing time, minor battles as Maximal or Predacon stumbled upon one another out in the field while either side ran their patrols or searched for useable energon.

Ruby was granted a bit more freedom, though she would catch Primal studying her as if he was trying to figure out a puzzle. Though she wouldn't admit it to him openly that she was a puzzle, just not a safe one to figure out at the moment. While she sat with him during his recovery they had played chess, a strategy game that the humans had brought with them to Cybertron and was commonly played among the commander class and higher for training purposes, Primal had asked her many questions to get to know her better. Understandably so, since she was new under his command now, but she had measured her words like she measured her moves on the board.

She had learned the game directly from a human. The first human ambassador she worked with had brought his own head of security detail with him. Captain Cirus Nelos was a charming older human, despite the battle scars from Earthen wars, and had taught her the game during their many long nights on watch. It was a friendship she would cherish her whole life, despite it being cut short due to the short human lifespan.

Primal was very good at the game as she remembered, but he raised more than one optic ridge at how often she put him in 'Check mate'. Even after he had been fully recovered they still played in the quiet of the night on the bridge when it was one or the other's turn for monitor duty. Rhinox often watched or joined in.

Since her arrival Ruby knew that Megatron would have the other Predacons observing her to add her information to his database, the Pred leader was well known for his many layered plans. More than once she had caught Waspinator peeking over a far ridge while she was out on patrol, alone or with others, and as soon as she'd look in his direction the giant insect would quickly hide behind whatever was handy.

No, Megatron was very good at the live game of chess that they all were pieces of. Ruby was going to have to keep it ever present in her mind. There were always going to be pieces lost in the game and she knew exactly which ones they were. She just had to make sure that the game played the same.

As she sat at the window in her quarters that overlooked the mountain terrain that the Axalon had crashed into and the river that cut through it, Ruby was enjoying the actual quiet that reigned in the ship at the moment. Optimus Primal had taken Dinobot, Rattrap, and Cheetor with him on a small mission late in the afternoon the day before, leaving Ruby and Rhinox the run of the base. Ruby stayed on the ship because it had been her night for monitor duty. Her Grand-sparker was on the bridge of the ship, having requested to stay behind, and had relieved her only a mega-cycle ago.

Looking down, she saw the four slowly returning from their mission and couldn't help but smile when she saw Cheetor and Rattrap take off from the other two. She knew what he was planning when Primal transformed and flew in front of his scout, a lesson in paying attention to one's surroundings. One that Cheetor made sure to pass to her while she was under his training.

Knowing Primal would be expecting her report before she shut down for recharge, Ruby left her room as the Sentinel shield lowered. When she reached the bridged, everyone was either looking over Rhinox's shoulder, or working at another station to aid him. The flying squirrel had to shake her head at Rattrap's coaxing of the computer system as she stepped up to the table directly behind him and Cheetor's stations as the rodent spun in his chair.

"Strip my gears and call me a floor-lamp!" the copper colored bot exclaimed, "Is that what I t'ink it is?"

"Yep," Rhinox said, his voice gaining an edge of excitement, "a temporal probe. Cybertron's found us!"

Ruby closed her eyes, recalling the story in her head as the others acted and reacted to the scenario. She knew how this day was going to end, but she had to keep a hopeful façade. It hurt to hear their disappointment when the probe was unable to detect their signal, her spark going out to them. Then Rhinox spoke up.

Turning to Optimus, Rhinox looked over at his shoulder at his commanding officer to answer his question. "You know how probes work. They hone in on the trans-warp signature of the missing ship."

"But," Rattrap started, "our trans-warp engine's been offline since the crash."

"That's why the probe moved on," Rhinox stated, his excitement building back up as everything fell into place in his head, "but it'll be back just before it leaves this system."

"So, if we can duplicate our trans-warp signature," Primal caught on to what his engineer was thinking, along with his excitement, "before it returns and send it to the probe…"

"We'll be on our way home," Rhinox finished the statement.

As the other two began to celebrate, Ruby watched Dinobot carefully. No, he was not as excited as the others, and she knew why.

Dawn was just breaking over the horizon as the Maximals began to build their communications array. Since she was a 'delicate little thing', despite being slightly bigger than Rattrap, Ruby had to laugh to herself as the guys practically pushed her aside so they could do all the heavy work. Giving a roll of her red optics at three of the four trying to impress her, she had told Optimus that she was going to go help Tigatron scout for possible attackers.

Transforming into her beast mode, Ruby gave a running start before she leapt off of the cliff side that they were building the array on in Predacon territory. Also, being away from them meant that she could give into the sorrow she felt at the knowledge that this day would not end in favor for the Maximals. Catching a wind current, she glided up higher before turning slightly to the right to follow the ridge that way. Picking an ideal vantage point, Ruby made a gentle landing before turning to watch the Maximals below.

It was just over a mega-cycle later that a firefight began to echo off of the rocks from the direction that Tigatron had taken. Ruby, who was still in beast mode at this time, looked off in the direction the sounds were coming from. "So it begins," she spoke quietly to herself as she watched Cheeetor run off in that direction.

* * *

Megatron had been going over the data his 'loyal' troops had gathered for him on the newest Maximal. Placing all the data they had collected on her into his own computer system, which had dug up nothing on her. She had no record in any of Cybertron's databases, but there was a possibility she could have come from one of the colonies that had been set up several hundred stellar cycles ago. Information always seemed to be slow to come from those who had set up far away from their home world.

Then there was the matter of the ship she had crashed in. It had taken Scorponok from the time she had crashed up until two solar cycles ago to gather even the smallest information on the ship. It was nothing that the Predacons had in their arsenal to use, despite having the markings of a Predacon ship. Sitting back in his chair, Megatron gave a thoughtful frown as he thrummed his fingers on the armrest. "You are an enigma, aren't you Ruby? Yeess, and I _don't like_ enigmas."

The Predacon leader's thoughts were interrupted when Tarantulas came dragging in the two Maximal cats, the news of the scientists latest project being a full success. But before the spider could gloat too much on his success, Terrorsaur flew into the base at full speed with the data orb Scorponok had sent with him in his beak. With the cats secured in cages, the Predacons gathered around the viewing monitor as they tried to figure out exactly what the Maximals were doing in their territory.

Upon learning about the probe, Megatron had taken his subordinates with him. There wasn't much time to assure that the Maximals wouldn't be able to contact the probe, and thus not able to receive aid from Cybertron.

* * *

Ruby watched as Optimus, Rattrap, and Dinobot finished the last bits of the array. It was everything she could do to not swoop down there and warn Primal of the danger heading their way. She could very easily win the Beast Wars on this day if she gave into the urge to bend time, but that would still be failure of her mission.

"I know who you are, Maximal," said a dark voice behind her, "and you don't belong here."

Startled, the flying squirrel turned around, poised to attack in her beast form, until she realized exactly who it was. The once magnificent red and gold dragon had become lack luster over the many stellar cycles of his imprisonment, his colors dulled and tarnished. The disturbing fact was, as long as he stayed still and kept his eyes closed, he was hard to distinguish from the landscape. She had landed practically right on top of Megatron and she didn't even notice. Now she literally was looking down the gullet of the dragon.

"Neither do you," she replied, relaxing a bit. "This is your victory in the first place, why are you here?"

The dragon lifted its head more to look down at the beginnings of the battle below. "To relish in my victory." He turned his head back towards the tiny bot, "I know you were not originally a part of the Beast Wars. I also know _whom _you come from that was. Do you believe you will succeed in your mission, little one?" He gave her a vicious smile, "Do you honestly believe that you can defeat me?"

Ruby swallowed thickly at the sharp, pointy teeth right in front of her. "All I can do is try."

"I can end it right now, yeess." Ruby had to fight a smirk as he began to gloat, "I can chew you up right now and my problem would be solved."

"You and I both know that you would only enjoy that until I start to rust in your systems," she countered, "and we both know that you wouldn't back away from a challenge."

"A challenge?" he laughed before looking back at her with a deathly serious gleam in his optics, "my dear, you are hardly a challenge, nooo."

"See it as you may," she shrugged calmly, "but let us play this game. And if you do win, you can gloat to all that the Maximal's only hope in stopping you was one, tiny fem." Seeing that she fanned his pride, she knew that she gave herself a tiny edge. Megatron's pride had cost him much before and she was hoping that it would work in her favor.

"You have spirit, yeess," the massive dragon head nodded, "I will enjoy breaking it."

Looking back out at the battle below, she watched as Optimus was forced into his beast mode due to the beam from the Lock-lenses device that Tarantulas had created. Not wasting any time, she ran and leapt from her perch with the dragon Megatron's laughter echoing in her ears.

Down below, Megatron was pressing his heel into the silver back of the gorilla, breaking connecting wires and spinal structures with the force. Ruby transformed, aiming her weaponry at the Predacon leader as she rolled, only to be swatted away with the tail attached to his arm. The Lock-lenses quickly trapped her in beast mode before she hit the rocks. It was enough to knock the cooling air out of her, but not black her completely out. Still, she lay there as if dazed; knowing she couldn't stop what was going to happen.

Despite giving it their best effort, Megatron still succeeded in destroying the array. It was thanks to Tigatron and Cheetor's swift intervention that that loss didn't cost the Maximals more than their chance to go home.

Even though being knocked into the rocks didn't knock her out, the array exploding did knock Ruby offline. She awoke after a little while, finding herself being gently rocked as she rested on Tigatron's back. Lifting her head, Ruby looked around to find Rhinox carrying the injured Primal on his back as the Maximals retreated back to the Axalon. The day's loss weighing heavily on all, making them all travel in silence. With much of her own to think on, Ruby rested her head back on the large cat's shoulders.

**Author's Note: I don't own the show.** I own DVDs of the show, but not the show itself.

Cirus Nelos belongs to Cyrex.

Thanks for reading!


	2. Ch 02: Double Dinobot

Chapter 2 – Double Dinobot

It had been almost a mega solar cycle since the Maximal's second attempt to leave the planet. Having salvaged the trans-warp drive from what they had believed was a wiped-out Predacon warship, the Autobot descendents attempted to flee the unknown world and make their way home. It was thanks to Dinobot, who had elected to stay behind and discovered the Preds hiding in ambush, that they were not completely caught off guard from the impending attack. Even Ruby had felt a hopeful rush as the ship began to lift off, despite her knowledge of the events that had to come to pass.

But as their luck, and the ship, began to crash back to where they belonged, she again found herself suffering the pains of surviving a crashed ship. It was actually taking the laser shot from Megatron to her torso plate that did the most damage, but despite the crack in the red covering of the temporal stabilization device she was wearing it seemed as if there was little to no real harm done. It was still too close of a call for her to feel comfortable with. She would need to finish up her replacement device soon.

It had taken both sides to clean up the mess that the ships had become in the process and soon the fighting began again. The flying squirrel almost had a spark attack when Rhinox had been taken, per Megatron's orders. Dinobot and Rattrap had to work together to keep her from storming the Darkside by herself she was so livid about the event. The poor fem couldn't help it, and that only made Optimus ponder the puzzle of Ruby a bit harder. Even though knowing better, she could have sworn she was about to lose her Grand-sparker for good. Rhinox had found that someone had been putting little pots of flowers in his quarters when he was absent from the room. Apparently someone on the crew was good at making the little bowls by hand out of clay.

Again, things had fallen quiet between both sides, making the Maximals wonder exactly _what_ Megatron was planning this time.

* * *

With nothing really better to do, Ruby was gliding around the upper wind currents, taking in every little detail of every rock that surrounded the Axalon. It was from this vantage point that she saw Dinobot doing his patrol and looking absolutely bored. About to swoop down and join him, she halted as she saw Terrorsaur come flying in to attack her comrade.

"Oh! I think I know what's going on here…" she mumbled, angling herself to land on the high top of one of the massive rock towers in the area and watched Dinobot chase the cowardly Terrosaur into a cavern. A few nano-cycles later the red Pred popped out of the top of the small mountain and fired his shoulder rockets into the cave opening, sealing Dinobot inside.

Flattening herself down as Terrorsaur was passing her, Ruby counted to ten before she stood back up to look over the ledge. Dinobot was trapped, but this was the first time that Megatron had cloned Dinobot for his purposes. Nodding to herself, and knowing that Dinobot was going to dig himself out, she hopped off of her vantage point and headed for the Axalon. There was a bit of fun to be had.

On the ship, having climbed in through the window in her quarters, Ruby was calmly walking through the ship in her robot mode. It didn't take her long to find the clone of Dinobot sneaking around, having come in through the pod bay door.

"Oh, Dinobot!" she called sweetly, making the clone jerk around as she had startled him.

"Yes?" he drew out with a snarl, irritated at her interruption, "what is it that you want?"

With a playful smirk, she slowly walked up to him, running her hand over the dinosaur's snout, "I was wondering, since neither one of us have monitor duty tonight," she was fighting laughing at herself, never having played coy before in all her mega-cycles, "if you wanted to share a bit of energon later."

The clone's jaw dropped and it took him a bit to recover, looking her over, "It may prove," he snarled, "interesting."

"Good!" she winked, sauntering off, "see you tonight." The clone was stuck there, watching the fem sway off, before shaking its head and continuing on its mission.

Ruby had to pause once she was out of view, holding her hand to her mouth to hold in the laughter. Maybe it being addle brained would make its down fall a bit more fun for real Dinobot. Then a sinking feeling set into the pit of her energon pump. Megatron always seemed obsessed with Dinobot. What if he was out there, right now, waiting to take out the real one?

Running down the hallway, Ruby barely waited for her door to open before she leapt out of her window, transforming as the Sentinel shield dropped for a moment to let her pass. Grabbing a strong air current that came from the falls, Ruby let it lift her up high into the sky. She didn't see anything out of the ordinary on her first go around, but recalling how well her adversary was able to hide, so well that she almost landed right on top of him, she wouldn't put it past him to be hiding around the Axalon, waiting to strike.

Finally having to perch, Ruby didn't relax when she saw the real Dinobot passing below several mega-cycles later, slowly making his way to the Maximal's base. Then she saw an odd glint as the sunlight caught something metallic. It was hard to see at first, until the red optics opened. Swooping into action and without a real thought or plan in her head, Ruby went to face the dragon.

* * *

Megatron was aiming now, planning on when would be the ideal time to leap from his perch when something furry landed on his snout.

"'Ello, guvna!" it said, as it dug its sharp claws into the metallic scales.

"You!" the tarnished dragon growled, "I have no time for your games, nooo."

"Aww," Ruby said, slowly crawling up Meg's nose, to get as far away from the teeth as possible. "But you agreed to play the game with me."

"Foolish Maximal," the dragon shook his head from side to side, but was unable to dislodge the annoying rodent, "step aside, my victory is assured."

Looking past her bushy tail, Ruby saw Dinobot stepping onto the lift. Smiling, she looked back into the dragon's eyes, "Not this time. Check." Giving a quick twist, she dive boarded off of the end of his nose, barely avoiding having him snap her tail off, and glided down. Megatron let out a ferocious yell, realizing that she had kept his attention away just long enough to lose his prey. About to leap after her, Megatron jerked to a halt as he saw himself moving towards the Maximal base. He couldn't risk exposing himself to the past and risk everything he did to escape his prison. Growling in anger, the former Predacon leader sulked back into hiding. There were other opportunities, yeess.

* * *

Ruby had swooped down in time to catch Megatron go flying off of the Sentinel shields, thanks to Dinobot's quick thinking. Transforming, she was smiling as she watched, with her arms crossed over her torso as the other Maximals joined her. "You just arrived in time for the show." With the others there, Megatron was quickly pushed into a retreat.

With Megsie gone, Dinobot was swift to explain what had happened to him and what had taken place inside of the Axalon while the others were out searching for Rattrap.

"You and that clone sure trashed the place," Cheetor stated as he and the others looked around.

"Aww," Rattrap wined, as the lift he, Rhinox and Optimus were riding up stopped and the broken door lifting up to let them exit, "don't tell me you're buying dis 'clone' stuff?"

"You heard Megatron admit it," Optimus countered.

"Oh yeah!" the rodent smart mouthed, "like I'm gonna believe him." Then he twisted around, looking for the one thorn to Dinobot's story. "If dere was a clone, then ah, where is he? Huhn?"

Dinobot took a deep breath, giving an almost purr to his snarl, "I'm afraid he's gone for good." Then with his next snarl he stated, "A shame really! He was such a handsome creature," and then he turned a dark smirk to Rattrap, "and, uhh, quite tasty."

When the raptor flicked a bit of the clone out of his teeth, the piece hitting Optimus on the cheek, the Maximal leader wasn't the only one that winced at the foul idea, the others sharing looks as he belched in satisfaction over his meal.

"You're disgusting," Primal stated flatly, which gave the raptor something to smile about.

* * *

Ruby sighed as she settled into her room for the night, looking at the clay that was forming under her digits. There were several little flower pots that were dry or drying on the shelf near the ventilation system, and now she was focusing on a new project with all the clay she had collected. The board wasn't hard to make, just time-consuming as she carved little details into it. The pieces were becoming little works of art of their own. One for each piece in play in the real life game she and Megatron played. They were colorless at the moment, but once dry she would add that little finishing touch.

Looking down at the small clay figurine of Blackarachnia forming steadily, Ruby sighed. Megatron would not be as easily fooled in the future as he was today. She knew she took a great risk insulting him like that, and it made her wonder exactly how he was going to make her pay for it.

**Author's Note: I don't own this show. **


	3. Ch 03: The Spark

Chapter 3 – The Spark

It was in the predawn hours when Rhinox had set out to observe an energon spike of energy in Predacon territory, grid Vega. Ruby, who had been counting down the days, had requested to Primal that she do an overnight scout patrol of the area the engineer was going to visit to assure that the Preds hadn't set up any traps. She knew it was a lie, but how could she tell them that they were about to gain a new Maximal to their ranks?

The sun was beginning to crest over the horizon, giving the barren area a beautiful glow. Ruby was perched on the top of one of the tower of rocks, yawning before shaking her head of the weariness that was starting to set in. If she was going to beat Megatron she had to think like Megatron, and if she was going to pick a vital time to strike it would be on this occasion. Despite the aid that Airazor had given them during her all too brief time, it was when she had become fused with Tigatron to become Tigerhawk that was the greatest threat to the Predacon Dictator.

Scanning the sky, she saw the group of shooting stars before one stood out and lasted past all the rest, becoming a bright red ball of fire falling from the sky. "This is it," she said, hopping up and shaking her whole body to push back the sleepy aches it gained before leaping into action. She had to make sure that Rhinox was able to do his thing and save the fem she had been told so much about.

She spotted the tarnished dragon, watching the sky with a keen interest, as the stasis pod fell closer to their position. There was a sad satisfaction at being right that Ruby pressed past as she dive bombed her adversary, knocking his head forward before leaping off of it to take to the air again.

"You!" Megatron yelled out, unfurling himself from the rock nest hiding place he had created for himself. "You will not steal this victory from me."

"I had a feeling you'd be here, Megsie," the Maximal time traveler quipped as she landed on the side of one of the large stone pillars, head down to look at him. "I figured you'd try to take her out of the equation."

"Oh, but you have it wrong, Maximal fool." The smile he gave her made her faux skin crawl, "I'm here to make sure Airazor works for me. I'm not here to terminate her, no. I'll reprogram her to become a Predacon spy so when the Maximals welcome her into their fold she would be their undoing, yess!"

"And take Tigerhawk out of play," Ruby finished darkly.

"Exactly," he literally snapped at her, making her take off to the air again, "now step aside!"

"Not going to happen," she flew around his head and attempted to land on his snout again, like she had before. Rhinox should be here soon, the pod shaking the earth as it crashed not two clicks away, and all she had to do was distract Megatron again to keep him from acting out his plan. Then he'd have no choice but to avoid interacting with the rest of those in play.

Megatron, wise to the wily ways if his foe, jerked his head to the side, making Ruby miss her target and almost crash into the ground. She gave a couple of leaps to get back to the air, but by this time Megatron was already rushing towards the stasis pod. With no other idea in her head on what to do, she landed on the Predacon's tail and bit as hard as she could.

The dragon halted, twisting his head around on his elongated neck, and breathed fire at her. Ruby let go, running as fast as her little legs would carry her, but still got the end of her tail singed in the process only to be swatted by his powerful tail. Satisfied in watching the little rodent fem roll along the ground, Megatron began to head towards the stasis pod again, only to pause and crouch down as the unmistakable stomp of Rhinox running at full speed came too close for real comfort.

The Predacon dragon was seething once it was safe to move again, Rhinox having come just a cooling intake' distance away from stomping on his wing as he passed. It was too late now. Rhinox would get to the pod and save the Maximal inside. It made the whole plan worthless now! Megatron would have to defeat the Maximal engineer and scout, when he finally showed, and destroy Airazor as she emerged from the pod before Scorponok and Blackarachnia, or Terrorsaur and Waspinator, made it there. If Airazor was not to be his, then neither would she live to join the Maximals.

* * *

Rhinox was focused on removing the locking chip from Cheetor, the Maximal scout offering it up freely to help aid their fallen comrade. It was as the green and gold bot was removing the chip that a wave of uncertainty passed over him. As if something else was very wrong. It was only a momentary glance up to take in their surroundings that let him push the feeling aside. It was his worry over the whole situation and the uncertainty if what he was going to do would really work that was feeding into the feeling. Focusing back on his task, he removed the locking chip from his young friend and reactivated the scout. They didn't have much time.

* * *

Shaking off the harsh tumble over the rocky ground, Ruby managed to get up right and transform, aiming for the dragon as he started to head towards the pod again. He was almost two hundred yards away from her, but that didn't stop her from opening fire with her gauntlet chain guns. Most of them hit home, making the Predacon turn back towards her before he rushed at her. With optics wide, she turned and began to run as fast as her two feet would carry her as an angry Megatron barred down on her fast. Using the terrain to aid her, Ruby was able to keep the dragon far away enough that she was able to turn around and fire on him every once in a while to keep him after her. She just had to buy Rhinox and Cheetor enough time to save Airazor.

The firefight between Cheetor and Blackarachnia was echoing around them, a few stray shots from the spider's weapons pinging around them, but Ruby still focused on her adversary. That was until one of the stray shots lodged into her ankle joint. The green and gold fem shouted in pain as she tumbled to the ground, but never had a chance to stop rolling before Megatron grabbed her in his mouth. He wasted no time in taking out his anger on his tiny foe, his massive and sharp transmetal teeth digging into her form. Ruby screamed in pain as it coursed through her as he bore down with even more pressure. The sounds of metal squealing and breaking barely audible over her voice as it began to give out. Even with her leaking energon and servo-fluids, he did not let up.

She felt herself being yanked around like a ragdoll in his powerful jaws as Megatron wildly whipped his head. He even tossed her up a few times to grip her in his powerful jaws again, like a dog playing with a toy, before he threw her to the ground. Peering down at the tiny, leaking mass before him, he saw that she was still online and functional. Good. Moving his head closer to her, making sure that she looked right into his optic, Megatron only smiled as he said, "Check, yeess."

Ruby was just barely able to groan as she watched the Pred move away. In his place she saw a lone bird in the sky, circling around where the stasis pod had fallen, right before the yellow light of the DNA scanner activated. The flying squirrel tried to smile, her systems sparking, as she let stasis lock take over. Airazor was safe.

* * *

Dinobot was sent out on patrol, much to his distaste, to check the progress of the Predacons that had suffered in the battle over the stasis pod. The raptor snarled a bit as he overlooked the battlefield, still shot up from both friend and foe fire. The sun was reaching its apex in the sky when something on the wind caught his attention. Sniffing a bit, he let his beast instincts take over. It was the smell of energon and servo-fluids being heated by the sun. The hunter followed the smell of injured prey, hoping that he would get a chance to fight this day, but as he crest the small hill he felt his energon pump seize.

Ruby was laying prone on her front; a trail of bright blue of energon mixed with the dark of the servo-fluid gave the path of where she had begun to drag herself. It was her energy signature, which was very weak, that even gave away who exactly she was. The damage she had sustained was massive. Transforming, the saurian lifted her up in his arms, wincing at her weak groan of pain, and began to run as fast as his robotic legs would go. He had to get her back to the others and fast.

When she finally awoke, Ruby found herself resting in her room. She didn't make a sound as she forced her optics open, despite her system's protests, and found Rhinox sitting in her desk chair. He was tinkering with her replacement temporal stabilization device as he sat at her bedside.

"Shouldn't you be resting?" she asked, her vocal unit just managing a whisper.

Her Grand-sparker looked up from the device, tiny in comparison to his hands, at her and gave a gentle smile. "My systems are fine, little one," and then he turned serious, "You had us worried."

"Sorry," she said, closing her optics.

"If Dinobot didn't find you when he did…" Rhinox trailed off, looking sorrowfully down at the device. He had figured out that the sense of something else being wrong was Ruby being in danger, yet he didn't understand why. "I noticed that you had a similar unit to this attached to you during your repairs, but it was damaged beyond repair." That made her open her optics again and try to sit up urgently, a panic coming over her, but her systems were still tender, and wires that were attached to her temporal unit on her chest kept her from really moving. "I have power going to it, but it won't last for much longer. I'm almost done with bringing this one online and I will do the replacement as soon as it is. Rest, Ruby."

The young fem fell back onto her recharge berth and powered down her optics. "Yes, sir," she mumbled before letting her recharge take over.

Rhinox went back to tinkering with the device, but sighed as he looked around. Once again his optics settled on the chess set she was making, each piece painted with painstaking detail, but it was then that he caught something out of the ordinary. Standing up, he quietly made his way over to the board and picked up one of the pieces. It was of Airazor. His jaw dropped a bit as he looked it over and then over at the resting bot. How could she have known what their newest member of the team was going to look like? It had only been a week since Airazor had joined them and Ruby had been recovering in the CR chamber the whole time. Then he looked down at the device in his other hand, giving it a thoughtful frown.

Who exactly was she?

* * *

Rhinox frowned as he looked down at the piece in his hand, recalling the wonderful bot he had known her to be. Airazor was like a daughter to him and not just because he had used his programming to save her. Gently caressing the piece, with parts a little chipped and some of the paint faded over the years, he let the little figurine wash all the good memories forward that he had of the time and of the friends he had lost. With great care, he replaced it on the shelf, next to Tigatron's, the little figurines crafted in such a way that they almost looked as if they were holding hands.

**Author's Note: I don't own the show.**

It is actually quite hard to write a character into the episodes and make it fit. At least make it fit well enough to not have others scream at you at how wrong it is. Or make yourself scream at you for how wrong it is.

Thanks for reading!


	4. Ch 04: Thin Ice

Chapter 4 – Thin Ice

Rhinox was looking down at the small Maximal fem on the repair table as he was preparing the tools he needed to replace the device he had finished only a mega cycle before. The scans the CR chamber had given him during her repairs were deeply disturbing from just the amount of damage that was done alone, but it was the chamber's inability to repair the tiny device she had hidden behind her torso plating that caused the most confusion, especially when her spark started having complications.

* * *

With her resting in her room, the Maximal engineer was able to attach the device to the ship's power. It was as Primal was assigning, more like negotiating, on who was going to take watch over Ruby, that Rhinox noticed a similar device on her desk; really being more of a work in progress, but it didn't take long for him to recognize the device from the scans from the repair chamber. Apparently Ruby understood the importance of the device and was working on having a back up. Taking a glance at the recovering bot, the sinking feeling that it might be too late tried to settle into his spark.

Cheetor had managed to wiggle his way into the first watch, the young scout pacing around before he finally settled into her desk chair. Rhinox nodded to the cheetah, taking the device with him as he left the room. Knowing that he wouldn't be able to recharge yet, the rhino headed into his workshop on the ship and set the device down on the workbench. Angling an overhead light over it, he had the computer system scan the device and let it compare to the device scans that the repair chamber had taken from Ruby.

Giving a thoughtful frown as his optics glanced over the screen, he was trying to figure out what exactly the devices were, if not some form of spark stabilizers. Still, something seemed very familiar about the devices. Shaking his head at himself, Rhinox reached over for a tool and began to work on the device before him. Time enough to think on that _after_ Ruby was back on her little clawed feet.

It was as the device progressed under his steady hands, both in his workshop and at her recharge berth side, that he realized exactly what the device was. It was something he had been designing plans on for stellar cycles, before he joined with Optimus. It was because his knowledge of transwarp energy that he was assigned to Primal's crew, knowledge that had him wondering what if someone could exist if the normal space-time flow was ruptured. But he had not yet actually built the device.

* * *

Having finished the device shortly after she had woken up earlier in the solar cycle, seeing the hand crafted chess pieces, what the actual device was clicked into place for him so firmly that he knew the facts to be as solid as the rock the Axalon had crashed into. As he looked at the little figurine of Airazor it was that last bit of proof that solidified his theory. Ruby was not of this time. But the true question was: why was she there?

Shaking his head at himself, he gently started removing the armored plating he needed to access the other device. The work was tedious as he carefully replaced her damaged unit one tiny wire at a time. Power flowed within the network of wires that the device contained; from which ran a minute temporal field that coursed through her whole body. It was just enough of a field to keep her in their time, but not enough to keep her from interacting with the physical environment around her. The damage she had taken from Megatron and the other Predacons from previous skirmishes was proof enough of that. It was mid-morning when he completed installing the replacement, and the little green and gold bot was resting in her room again.

Having found Optimus heading down the hallway to take over Rhinox's shift at her side, the larger bot took his commander aside into one of the empty quarters that was next to Ruby's. Primal listened patiently as his friend explained the device and the procedure, having handed him the little Airazor figurine to look at.

It was a deeply troubling thought, but Primal had to agree. If Ruby really did come from the future, and had the knowledge that came with it, she could have very easily tipped the war in the Maximal's favor at least three times by now, if not more. She could have also tipped the scales in favor of the Predacons if she had malicious intentions. It was when he looked back down at the chess piece in his hand that Primal had to wonder if they really weren't suppose to have returned back home to Cybertron yet.

Ruby had yet to really make any real significant input into any of the conversations they had, she had not countered any choices he or any of the other Maximal's had made. There was also a lack of distrust when it came to her and Dinobot, the flying rodent all too happy to side with the saurian on the clone issue. Primal frowned as he took in the details of the little figurine of Airazor, knowing that Ruby had not been awake to have worked on the piece, nor had she had a chance to meet the new Maximal.

"That's just prime," he mumbled before looking up at Rhinox. "So, if Ruby is a visitor to the Beast Wars, then why is she here?"

Rhinox only shrugged, as puzzled over the question as his commander, "I can only speculate, but we really wouldn't be able to know. The future is a tricky thing, Optimus. Ruby's walking on thin ice as is simply _because_ she knows what's going to happen."

Nodding, Primal conceded the thought, "Which means she will do as little as possible to affect the events yet to come, if she is indeed here to help us."

"She's certainly had plenty to sabotage if that was her intent," Rhinox offered.

"You're right," Primal rubbed his chin, "I believe there's another hand in play. One only she knows."

The rhino nodded, "That would explain the damage she sustained. Damage we do not yet have on file from any known Predacon here."

"That means we have a very dangerous rogue element. One that knows the events of this timeline as well as Ruby does herself." Primal raised an optic ridge in thought.

"Optimus, I designed that device before I joined you on the Axalon, but I have yet to build it. She mentioned her Grand-sparker had sent her on her mission; however the device's coding looks like mine so apparently at some point in the future I deem it necessary to send her back here to do or prevent something. My suggestion," Rhinox concluded, "is to focus on our battles and let Ruby focus on hers."

"Wise advice, as always my friend," Primal agreed, "Just make sure that she has everything that we can spare for her to win. Including our trust, but this knowledge stays between you and me. Any more with this insider knowledge risks your Grand-sparkling's mission."After a quiet moment to think on their discussion, Optimus sighed as the door opened, "I best get to my watch before Rattrap or Dinobot try to steal my place," and he held up the little Airazor, "and replace this before she finds out what we've discovered."

The engineer nodded, "I have some scans that I need to get started on." With that the pair parted ways, Rhinox to the bridge to move forward with his scans of the planet's two moons, in an effort to learn more about where exactly they might have landed, and Optimus to sit at Ruby's bedside, like she had done for him.

Primal gently placed the little clay figure on the chessboard, idly wondering who else was going to adorn the set. He had also noticed that Ruby had not made a figure of herself, nor of her opponent. Primal knew that if he was in her place, he wouldn't take such a risk. Moving over to the desk chair, now well worn from its constant use by all, Primal pulled out the current book he was reading and sat in the silence of her room.

**Author's Note: I don't own this show!**

Just a little tidbit to move the story along. Thanks goes out to my hubby TexMECHs for helping me get this thing out.


	5. Ch 05: The Trigger

Chapter 5 – The Trigger

Ruby, for one, was glad to be up and about again and out of her room. When she had awoken to find that Rhinox had already finished and replaced her temporal device and was told exactly how much time she had spent recovering from 'whatever' had attacked her, she was worried that something might have happened while she was gone. After finding that all the Maximals, and Predacons, were all accounted for and in good health, she was able to relax a bit. A few quick moments of catching up with Optimus Primal with all that had happened while she was recovering and Ruby understood what nearby events were about to take place.

If she was to think like her adversary, then he would not directly affect the events that would come to pass. There were certain things in play and the Vok were about ready to join the game. But Ruby frowned at a thought. One way to keep some of these things from happening was to keep the Vok from receiving the message about the test they were all about to face, and 'fail'.

Too many 'pieces' were going to be on the floating island for it to be a direct target, but once it crashes then it might be fair game. It was a hunch she'd have to follow now, but there were a few tiny details she'd have to take care of first. Most of that would be her required shifts for monitor duty.

Tiny claws clinked off the metal floor as Ruby made her way to the bridge. Rhinox was sitting at his usual station, running his scans over whatever inquiry of the planet held his attention at that point in time. Rattrap was sitting at the communications station, waiting for Tigatron's weekly report of his area. It was then that she got a wicked idea. Having to struggle to hide her smile, she greeted the two as she made her way over to another station, transformed into her robot mode, and pulled up one of Rattrap's holo-games of cards.

Knowing that he saw what she was doing, Ruby pretended to have trouble with the game, as if she was either really a bad player or had no idea how to play, neither was really the case. After all, Rattrap had taught her everything _he_ knew and playing with humans gave her a few tricks her uncle never knew. The trap was baited. Now all she had to do was wait for it…

"'Ey, ah… Ruby," Rattrap started. Ruby smiled as the mental mouse trap in her mind snapped shut. "Hows 'bout I show ya how it's done."

Doing her best to put an innocent look on her face, she gave a slightly teary pout to the rodent. "I'm afraid I'm not that good."

At that Rattrap gave a smirk, trying to be as non-threatening with it as possible, "Eh, no worries. I can teach ya."

Rhinox had paused in reading over his scans of the planet's tidal tendencies, having heard the tone of Rattrap's vocal emitter. The copper bot was preparing to con his grandsparkling. The protective need arose in him, something that he had for everyone in the crew but found it particularly strong for her since realizing who exactly Ruby was in his future life, but the engineer calmed himself. She must have known who Rattrap was before coming here, surely Rhinox would have told her himself about his dear friend, so she would also be smart enough to not to fall for it.

"Sure!" Ruby said, shutting down the game and making her way over to the table where Rattrap began to set up another game of cards.

Rhinox sighed as his head dropped. Maybe she wasn't. Promising himself that he wouldn't interfere unless Rattrap started pressing Ruby into making bets. Taking a deep breath to focus, Rhinox went back to his scanner's readouts. There was something troubling about the readings.

Ruby was proud of herself for not giving up her true intentions too early in their game play. Rattrap was trying to teach her how to play, the basic rules, but it was a very different lesson that what he had given her all those years ago. He was even going about being 'nice' and letting her win a few games to boost her confidence. After she let herself play a bit better, as if having learned from all his 'helpfulness', Ruby knew that he had taken the next bit of bait.

"Yer doin' pretty good! Hows 'bout we make this more… interestin'?" the rat 'innocently' inquired.

"How so?" Ruby blinked up at him, playing her young lady like charms by batting her optics with a puzzled look on her face.

"Eehh," Rattrap shrugged a bit, his head tilted to the side with one hand up in the air, "hows about placin' bets?"

Ruby slumped her shoulders, fighting the smile as yet another mouse trap in her head snapped shut, "But I don't have anything really to bet with."

Rhinox had turned around in his seat at this point and looked at Rattrap. "I don't think that's really being fair to her, Rattrap." He was trying to keep his voice even, but the idea that his friend was going to start conning his way around with Ruby didn't settle well with the larger Maximal.

Rattrap, at this time, had turned to face Rhinox and was ready to defend his actions. From his vantage point Rhinox could see both of them clearly and had to blink when Ruby suddenly smirked at him with a predatory smile to rival any that Dinobot might have given before she suddenly looked innocent again. "I know what we can trade!"

Rattrap was smiling as if she had just taken the wind from Rhinox's sails, "What's dat 'sweetspark'?"

"How about monitor duties?" Seeing his face light up, more than the internal systems already did, Ruby knew she had hooked the biggest 'sucker'.

"That'll work!" he exclaimed as he began to let the computer deal their cards out.

Knowing that his grandsparkling was able to handle herself, Rhinox turned back towards his station. He even chuckled a time or two at hearing Rattrap being trounced at his favorite game.

It was well into their game that Optimus had walked onto the bridge. His first reaction at seeing Rattrap and Ruby playing cards was to chide the rat for dragging an innocent young lady into such a game. That was until the hand was over and Rattrap bemoaned the loss and Ruby was tallying the 'bets'. She had managed to win almost a two straight months of reprieve from her monitoring duties. Rattrap, in an effort to gain some of his lost ground with the bets, had began to bet higher and higher amounts of time.

"Eh, I let ya win," the rodent said as he shut down the game and went back over to the communication's station, "so's ya could focus on recoverin'."

Ruby smiled at him, batting her eyes playfully, "Don't be mad because you taught me soooo well."

Optimus cleared his throat at hearing her tone of sarcasm, knowing that Rattrap probably hadn't done that great of a job. Rhinox was chuckling a bit, but it was quiet and short lived as he was reading over some more information on his screen. Curious as to how his friend's studies were going, Primal stopped to look over his shoulder. "How's your tidal research going?"

"Got some odd anomalies," Rhinox was leaning closer to his screen, "It would almost seem that one of the moons is _lighter_ than it should be. Not enough mass for its size. It's as though it were," and he turned to look at Optimus, "hollow."

Primal was thinking on the information. There was something not right about the findings at all. "Hmm, instrument error?"

Ruby watched her Grandsparker look back at his screen. "Maybe," he conceded to his commander's thoughts on the matter, noting it mentally to run a diagnostic scan over the tools he was utilizing for the task.

Ruby calmly sat back down in the chair she had occupied earlier, listening. She remembered him telling her about the second moon, the hollow one that turned out to be a planet destroyer that the Vok had put in place to sterilize their experiment if something were to happen. It seemed that she was up and going with no time to spare. She had to plan her next move.

When Rattrap answered Tigatron's call, the flying squirrel had to smile at how happy he seemed to be after losing so many games of cards to her not a few cycles before. At hearing the attack begin over the communications, Ruby was on her feet and silently left the bridge. She needed to prepare herself for an upcoming fight with Megatron and he wasn't playing nice anymore.

In the storage room, Ruby grabbed the tail missile launcher that Megatron had left behind when he infiltrated the ship during their attempt to leave the planet. The thing was almost as big as she was standing in robot mode. Right now it would have to work until she could come up with something better. It would at least give her an edge of surprise. After she locked it away in her sub-space pocket, Ruby looked over the storage what other items she could utilize without risking the others with their loss.

Ruby had made it back up to the bridge of the Axalon as Optimus Primal gave his report on his find, or lack thereof. Cheetor was practically hanging on Rhinox's shoulder, deeply worried over his fellow feline. Rattrap, who was also worried but was trying to play it cool, was standing behind the pair. Dinobot, in beast form, was simply waiting for the order to fight. Taking a seat on the table behind them all, the fem calmly listened and absorbed all the information she was gaining from their interactions. When the duo began to bicker again, Ruby was surprised at the force Rhinox had put in his tone of voice to quiet them down. She had never heard him use it before, but the effect of it was solid, as even her quiet snickering over Rattrap and Dinobot was silenced as well as she slumped down a bit like a scolded child. It was everything she could do to keep from laughing as the two bickering bots, mostly Rattrap, made rude gestures behind her Grandsparker's back. As the communication died down, she had to give a sigh. It was simply more waiting. Then she smirked as she watched the others begin to depart from the bridge.

"Hey, Dinobot," she called, not moving from her spot on the table, and both he and Rattrap stopped to look at her, "Rattrap taught me how to play cards today. You up for a few games?"

The raptor gave a bit of a purr, eyeing the bot that was standing next to him, "Did he now? I bet he taught you how to play with all sorts of vermin tricks."

"Nah," Rattrap wined a bit, "she plays real clean. Maybe yous could teach 'er a thing or two." The rodent was fighting smirking, getting into Ruby's ploy because he'd be a toasters uncle before he'd be the only one that she'd have all those nights of monitor duty shoved on. "If ya think she's good enough, ya could bet her some time doin' monitor duty."

Dinobot weighed the words, looking between the two. She looked so innocently hopeful with that huge smile, and it would give him some time with her. "Fine," giving a faux disgruntled sigh, Dinobot marched his way back over towards her, "let a real bot teach you how to play."

"Goodie!" she cheered, noticing Rattrap hurrying from the bridge as he was fighting laughing. Off to the side, Rhinox just shook his head as he was witness to yet again Ruby's sneaky ploy before returning to his own work.

With no bit or part of Tigatron to be found, Primal had made the hard choice to return back to the Axalon. Airazor, whom he had sent to scout the Darkside, would report any findings when she came across them. With the long flight back, Primal had to frown a bit. What did Ruby possibly know about this? A large part of him wanted to ask her, but he knew that it wouldn't get him far. Thinking back on the time they had spent speaking to one another, Optimus recalled that she guarded herself very well, and if Rhinox was right, she would do very little to try to change events.

He'd also have to come up with some way for her to be free to work on her own mission but without it coming across as he was playing favorites to her or raising the suspicion of the others, especially when it comes to monitor duty. Giving a slight groan at just the start of a headache over the idea, Primal began to miss the days past when he was just a simple grunt when he was taking orders, not giving them. "There's no changing that now," he told himself as the Axalon came into view. Off in the distance he saw the peregrine falcon form of Airazor also coming towards the Maximal base, but she was still quite a ways off by the time he was over the ship. With the roof opening up to him, Primal landed in the ship and moved out of the way so Airazor had a place to land.

Confusion crossed his face as he saw Dinobot marching off across to the other side of the bridge, grumbling about something again. Assuming it was Rattrap, who was snickering at his station, the commander walked over to Rhionx and began to listen to his engineer's updated report. Ruby was quietly looking over a data-pad as she sat two stations down from Rhinox's. Primal glanced over at her, noticing that she was pretending to be reading the device in her hand when she was really listening to them.

"What did Rattrap do to Dinobot _this time_?" Optimus asked, the warning caw from Airazor echoing a bit as she began her decent into the ship.

Rhinox stood up and leaned a bit close to Optimus, so he could whisper in his commander's audio receptor, "Ruby had conned both Dinobot and Rattrap into a game of cards, though Rattrap helped trap Dinobot. The bets were their scheduled monitor duties." Stealing a glance around Airazor, as she landed and transformed while the doors shut above her, Optimus tried not to smile. It seemed as if Ruby had taken care of that issue already.

The flying squirrel made her way over and began to chat with the other fem, making the introductions they had missed earlier, and then listened as Airazor began to give her report. Both Optimus and Rhinox had noticed how quickly both of the lady Maximals had gotten along and how quickly their friendship blossomed.

"You're sure of this?" Primal asked, having shared a look with Rhinox.

"Positive!" Airazor answered firmly, "It was Terrorsaur and Waspinator and they were seriously slagged. Almost scrap!"

"Not Tigatron then," Rhinox affirmed, Primal having to turn to look back at his friend, "That's not his style."

"No," their commander agreed, "he'll defend himself, but total destruction is against _everything_ he believes in."

"He is a fool then!" Dinobot interjected, standing firm again on his belief that the enemy should be destroyed on sight whenever possible.

"'Eh, when it comes ta Preds I gotta agree wich'ya," Rattrap tossed in his two cents worth, making Dinobot smile a bit until the rodent added flatly towards Ruby and Airazor, "especially certain ones."

Naturally this riled the former Predacon into an even fouler temper, making Rattrap have to back up defensively. The only thing that kept the non-flying rodent from becoming lunch was Cheetor rushing onto the bridge from the lift, leaping between the two to land on the table.

"Whoa!" the scout exclaimed more to draw attention to the situation than the fight he had just interrupted, "head's up fellow 'bots! Movement at Pred central! Blackarachnia and Scorponok are headed out and they're not wasting time."

Primal turned to his only other flyer, "Airazor, can you follow them, but without them seeing you?"

"Easily," she assured him with a smile before transforming and taking off.

"Man," Rattrap broke the silence that was left in the wake of Airazor's departure, "Sumthin's got Megatron's scaly tail in'na wringer,"

"Hey, maybe it's Tigatron!" Cheetor said hopefully, his optimism rising at the thought, "Maybe he's still alive!"

"We can only hope," Optimus looked down at his scout, being careful not fuel a possibly futile fire in the young bot's spark, "but if the Predacons reach him first he may not survive much longer."

Rhinox watched as Ruby looked down, as if she was fighting trying to say something. Excusing herself from the bridge of the ship, she had simply told Optimus that she was going to her quarters when he had asked. Watching her leave, the engineer frowned a bit. That was a weight he wished on no one, so why did he see fit in the future to place that weight on his grandsparkling's shoulders?

Taking the back way off of the ship, Ruby made her way as swiftly as she could to the area that Optimal Optimus had described the island crashing at in the end of this long day. It was a click or two away from the Axalon and she wanted to make sure that she had plenty of time to reach there and scout the area for any well hidden, ill-intentioned, Predacons.

Well past the time the sun had set she heard the general alert from Optimus Primal to evacuate the Axalon. Ruby had settled on the high peak of the ridge of the island's would-be-crash site and looked up at the sky. The flying island wasn't hard to miss, the glowing top of the obelisk firing all sorts of energy shots at the Maximals on the island with it. What she didn't count on was the thing coming right at her as it crashed into the rocks before it hit the vast desert land below.

Ruby leapt free, gliding to dodge the pieces of the island that were breaking apart, which was no joy flight. Everything shook as the large chunk of rock that made up the island broke apart while it spun through the sand, until it all became still and the obelisk crashed to the ground before shooting the blue energy beam to second, largest moon in the sky before it disappeared into a portal.

Taking a deep breath, Ruby slowly climbed up onto the top of one of the cliffs and took to the air. She landed as the other Maximals were gathering around to discuss what had happened and what exactly the beam of light could have been. The flying squirrel just listened to their conjecture of the matter as she looked up at the point in the sky it had disappeared. It was when Rattrap brought up the more pressing issue of the recipient of the message that made the others start to worry.

"What do you think they're going to do?" Cheetor asked the question that was in everyone's processor.

"That," Rhinox said calmly, "we're just going to have to wait and see."

**Author's Note: I don't own the show.**

Oh boy, this was interesting to get down. Not much to really "do" for the episode, but it was an important one to place in the chapter, but trying to squeeze two episodes into one chapter is a headache. Also, it the best opportunity to have her 'prepare' for more serious fights ahead.


	6. Ch 06: Call of the Wild

CH 6 – Call of the Wild

In the quiet of the night Ruby was tinkering with a device idea that if she was successful would give her free run of the planet: a signal dampener. She worked on it between putting coats of paint on her latest piece for her board. She sculpted the figure according to what her Grandsparker had told her about the Predacon insect, the tiny representation frozen in a silent scream of insanity. It was one Pred that she did not look forward to meeting.

Bent over her work desk, the mass of wires and metal slowly forming under the single beam of lamplight in the dark, the flying squirrel was working in the quiet of the night until the Axalon began to shake and the computer's warning started sounding. Bolting up with urgency Ruby ran from her quarters and made her way to the bridge of the ship. Cheetor was running ahead of her, so when he suddenly skid to a halt, she had to dance around a bit to keep her footing on the already unstable ground.

Ruby shifted her hands to her wrist weaponry, while Rattrap was rudely giving orders to the young scout, . Ruby was waiting by the lift as Dinobot made his way over; carrying the feline by the back of his robotic neck. She gave them cover fire as they ran towards Scorponok and Tarantulas. It was out of the corner of her eye that she saw Megatron pop up from behind a pile of rocks to her left, the purple tyrant firing off a missile high at the ship's auto-guns before she could turn adequately her attention towards him.

There was an adrenalin rush to war that she had never experienced when protecting the human diplomat, a rush that Ruby found herself enjoying too much. Growing up listening to the stories from her Grandsparker and the family that he had gained from the Beast Wars, none of them had really mentioned it to her. Could that be why the Predacons fought so much? What drove the Decepticons to attempt to conquer in the first place? This addictive primal urge she was feeling. When tyrants rose to power there would always need to be someone to fight against them and feed that basic need.

The ship was shaking above her as she pinned Megatron to his rocky hiding place. High above her Optimus had launched himself from the Axalon's bridge, taking off after the Predacon flyers. Ruby had glanced up at them for a moment, but a moment was all it took for the Pred leader to peg her in the leg with a laser bolt, sending her crashing to the lift as he ordered their retreat. She was distracted long enough for Megatron to launch another missile at the Maximal leader, and for Airazor to be injured. Aiming at the retreating Preds, Ruby gave them a harsh send off while Dinobot and Cheetor helped their injured comrades back to the ship.

Since she was on the lift already she made room by transforming into beast mode so Cheetor and Airazor could join her while Dinobot and Optimus took the second lift up to the bridge. As she saw it the other two needed the CR chamber more than she did and her beast mode would take care of what repairs she needed. Quickly scampering out of the way to sit on a chair on the far side of the room, she watched as the others put her dear friend Airazor in the CR chamber as the others gathered around. Rhinox had checked on his Grandsparkling, but she only nodded her head that she was going to be all right.

"She took a bad hit," Optimus began to say as he walked away from the closing chamber; "it'll be days before the repairs are completed."

"We've got another problem, too," the Maximal engineer began, but was interrupted when their robot bodies began to jerk. As confusion set in about the phenomenon, Ruby's jaw dropped. This wasn't good. Not good at all.

The Predacons had taken the ship's rectifier coil which was the only thing keeping the excessive energon field at bay while they were indoors. Without it the Maximals were trapped in their beast forms, leaving them unable to properly function on the ship. It also left them ripe to an attack from the future Megatron. As the others were discussing their current predicament, their 'protector' was thinking long and hard about the danger they could be in. If she were the Megatron that knew what was going to happen, when would she attack?

* * *

The next two days passed slowly, Ruby using every excuse she could to escape the base and the growingly agitated crew that resided within. The lack of sleep added to Megatron's constant taunting with one of his crew sending a few shots at the ship at sporadic times kept the Maximals on edge. It made them all short fused and put them at each other's furry throats and Ruby wanted no real part of it.

She was able to glide around, relaying Pred positions even though Sentinel did so already, but it was hiding her true motive for her constant flying and leaping from high rock pillar to the next. She was looking for 'him'. As she rested the top of one high stack of rock, Ruby had to shake her head. The young Maximal female was very tired, the men on the ship all growling and snarling at one another, plus the Preds shaking up the place, was keeping her up at night.

As the warm setting sun began to lull her into sleep, rocket fire hitting the Axalon behind her shocked her awake. It was then that she caught the faint glint in the fading light of the sun. Looking closer she had to blink a couple of times. It could have been her tired processor playing tricks on her. She gave into the extremely loud yawn, shook her fur lined body from ears to fluffy tail tip, and leapt off her perch, gliding low over an outcropping of rocks before heading back to the base.

She landed on the roof of the bridge, looking in the direction that Scorponok was firing from with a shake of her head before she commanded Sentinel to open the hatch. She was just in time to watch Rhinox break up the fight between Optimus and Rattrap, the table flying across the room and breaking the glass of the far lift.

With a tired sigh she quietly left the bridge, slowly making her way to her room. The Preds had decided they were going to finally leave them alone and she wasn't about ready to pass up on at least a nap.

* * *

Megatron lifted his head on his elongated neck, the moonlight glistening off of his tarnish crown of horns, as he watched as one by one the Maximals fled from the artificial surroundings of their ship, yielding to the urgings of their bestial forms. With every one of them gone, and he himself out of the way hunting Primal as the foolish Maximal ape swung through the trees, Megatron could easily destroy the Maximal base and give himself the winning advantage in the Beast Wars. To this day he still was not sure exactly how the Maximals had claimed this particular victory from him, but even if they were successful this time around they would have no home to return to.

It was the sight of something dark moving along the piles of rocks off to his side that made the great dragon flinch and quickly duck his head. How could she have spotted him? He was certain that the annoying time traveling maximal fem had seen him earlier, but when she had looked right at him and not made real move to attack, even coming within feet of his head as she caught the wind and sailed off towards the Axalon, Megatron became convinced that he had outwitted the idiotic bot.

But he had to smile to himself as she came sniffing around the rocks as she slowly crawled like the vermin she truly was. It appears that whatever their victory was this day, the Maximals of the future had not shared it with her before sending her to fight him.

"A little fun before I go to work," he said to himself as he stalked his prey, "yeess."

Ruby was sniffing for something to eat. She was very hungry, but as she crawled over the barren rocks she paused, sniffing the air around her. She felt as if she was being followed, watched. When nothing around her moved she went back to her hunt for any tidbit she could find. The flying squirrel jumped into a defensive position, her tail up and her fur on end, as a great lizard head suddenly thrust itself forward into her path. The glint in its eye was that of a predator about ready to devour its prey.

Megatron laughed as the tiny fem shook in fear as he moved closer to her before Ruby took off running. "That's right, little one, run. But you won't get far, nooo," and he gave chase to her playfully snapping at her tail.

Ruby ran blindly as the hot breath of her pursuer singed the fur on the end of her tail. Twisting and turning through the rocky maze, the flying squirrel skidded to a halt as she found herself trapped between three walls of rock and a hungry dragon as he transformed.

Megatron smiled with delight as the tiny flying squirrel twisted around to face him as it backed up against the rock wall. "I have enjoyed our little game, yeess," but he shook his head from side to side, "but your _time_ is at an end. Too bad those who sent you back didn't have the foresight to warn you about the events of this day."

"Actually," Ruby said, as she calmed instantly as she stepped closer to her foe as he stared at her in shock while she transformed, "he did." Aiming his own original beast form's tail missile launcher at him at nearly point blank range, Ruby fired off the weapon right at his own torso plate. "Check!"

Megatron growled with pain and anger as blast after blast sent him reeling back with each injuring blow. With no other choice the dragon had to flee, vowing to her as he hovered above her that he would kill her slowly before retreating as she fired more violent projectiles at him.

Ruby lowered the now spent weapon, letting it clatter on the rocky ground as she watched the dragon disappear into the night as he flew away from the sounds of battle in the thick jungle area. The Maximals had learned to work with their beast instincts this night; a lesson that would serve them well in the long war ahead. With a tired sigh Ruby bent down to pick up the rocket launcher and with a grunt flipped the large weapon to rest over her right shoulder before she began her long trek back to the base.

She spotted Airazor landing on the roof of the Axalon, knelt down as she reinstalled the rectifier coil. Storing her newest weapon in her subspace pocket, Ruby transformed before leaping off of the cliff side and landed next to her friend. "How goes it?"

The peregrine falcon smiled warmly at her fellow female Maximal as the device hummed to life. "Great. Run into a bit of Pred troubles, too?"

Ruby looked past her bushy tail at the direction her friend pointed after she transformed into bi-pedal form, "Yeah, but nothing I couldn't handle." Then she turned her attention back to her friend, "How are you feeling?"

"Much better," Airazor replied as she and Ruby focused on repairing the armored plating over the coil. "Looks like the place is ready for when the guys get home."

"Eh, let them stay out for a while," the rodent replied as she got Sentinel to open the roof hatch, "they've been cooped up inside for too long and need to vent a bit. In the meantime," she smiled as they landed inside the base, the doors closing overhead, "I think we girls deserve a bit of peace and quiet." The ladies laughed as they disappeared down the hallway, using the time to gossip about their fellow fighters.

* * *

It was after the others had returned that Ruby found her first bit of trouble with the others. They were debriefing from the night's events before heading off to slumber when Rattrap, who was standing next to her, nudged her a bit harshly with his elbow.

"We uh, missed ya at our little 'pow wow', Ruby," he stated loudly to draw the attention of the others, "and since ya had yer own little Pred battle, how dija manage it?"

Smirking at his question the fem just shrugged as she leaned against the table as she was trying to ignore the weight of all the optics looking at her. "I didn't have the problem because my programming block was already removed."

"How come?" Cheetor asked, as curious as the rest there but not for the exact reasons why.

Ruby focused on the scout, using his question. "I was assigned to guard the human ambassador, remember? One of them I had served under had me scan her to be her body double, which meant I spent quite a bit of time in my human based beast form. Before the conflict in the programming became an issue my commanding officer had me remove the programming block."

Rhinox nodded, thinking on the information. "Makes sense," he agreed, both at the idea and to help keep her cover, "even though we are similar to humans in our mindsets, there are still basic instincts that would cause a few issues."

Ruby nodded at this point. "So, how about we get some sleep?" she yawned. With the others giving a hearty agreement they slowly meandered down the hallway.

Dinobot, the last to leave the bridge, watched Ruby disappear toward her room. She was hiding something, he knew it. One thing he didn't like was secrets being kept from him. She had claimed to have been in a battle with a Predacon, but by his reckoning of the battle all of the known Preds were accounted for. Who exactly did Ruby fight? This other hand at play, was this the same one that nearly extinguished her spark so brutally? If so, why has she not told the others about it?

As he was about to round the corner he heard someone mumbling to themselves. Quietly, he crept closer to the adjoining edges of the intersecting hallway, pressed against the wall as he listened to the quiet words.

He heard Ruby sigh before she spoke again, "Good thing Uncle Rattrap taught me how to bluff. I don't think I could have gotten away with the story about having had a human form otherwise." Anything else she might have said was cut off by the closing of her door.

With a snarling growl Dinobot marched off to his own quarters, wondering if he should confront her himself or bring it to Optimus' attention.

**Author's Note: I don't own the show.**


	7. Ch 07: Trapped

Ch 7 – Trapped

Running ship's diagnostics were time consuming, but needed to be done and Ruby was all too happy to help Rhinox get it over with. The Preds were still recovering from their botched attempt to wipe out the Maximals a few days back so things were relatively quite around the Axalon. The quiet times were the best times to do upkeep on the ship.

Primal was on the bridge with them, working with the system on the table to assist the pair, when Sentinel gave notification that its scanners had detected an odd blip. Blinking, the Maximal commander inputted a few keys to bring up the information. With the discovery of another alien race not native to the unknown world they were on he didn't want to take a chance. As his hand reached up to activate his comm-link, he heard the soft click of sharp nails on metal with a soft underlying purr to the breathing pattern that indicated that Dinobot was almost on the bridge.

"Ah, Dinobot, good timing," the Maximal leader began, half turned as he addressed the saurian fighter. "Sentinel just picked up something and I need you to go check it out. It could be related to our recent encounters with the other visitors to this planet."

Dinobot, in beast mode, looked up at Optimus as he received his orders and then over at Ruby, who was sitting at the station behind Primal. The flying squirrel had paused in what she was doing and had her head partially turned as if she was speaking with Rhinox, or even looking at his station, but in truth she was listening to their conversation. Keeping his satisfied smile to himself, the warrior knew he had the opportunity he had been looking for the past few days.

"Since Rattrap and Cheetor are out checking in on Megatron, perhaps it is best if I take Ruby with me," he purred a bit, "if Rhinox can spare her. Her gliding skills would be most prudent in our search."

Nodding in agreement, Primal looked over at his engineer, "Can you spare your assistant?"

Rhinox, having turned when Dinobot had mentioned his name, nodded as he smiled at Ruby, "Optimus and I can get the rest. Some fresh air will do you some good."

"If you're sure you've got this," she replied, letting her chair slide towards the table and spin her around before she stood up. Transforming smoothly into her beast mode, she started to paw her way over to the lift. "Let's go, Dinobot."

As he joined her on the lift, Ruby stood on her hind legs to give him plenty of space before it lowered them out of the ship. Once outside they began their long slow trek. The path was rocky and steep most of the way, at first moving over the area that Ruby last faced her enemy only a few nights before. As they crested over one of the taller peaks of the small mountainous area, she began to worry about what exactly that odd blip was. This was the direction Megatron had fled in his injured state. Could Sentinel be picking him up, his injuries bringing his once hidden signature to the scanner's attention? Ruby knew that Sentinel was not calibrated yet to detect and identify Transmetal signatures, especially the further mutated Transmetal Two stage.

Dinobot snarled a bit, sniffing the air around them as he took in the view. He wouldn't admit it out lout, but Primal was right. The terrain had a unique beauty that even a battle scarred warrior like himself could be at peace in. His predatory eye caught the flying squirrel as she slowly climbed up a small pile of rocks at his left, her tail twitching in a jittery, nervous fashion. Something was bothering her.

"The rocks make it difficult to pinpoint from our current location," he began calmly, sweeping his head in a slow manor as he snarled a bit, "Perhaps you should an aerial sweep of the area."

Nodding, Ruby scanned the area herself, "I don't have enough clearance to get a good wind under me." Hopping off the rocks she slowly made her way over to her partner. "Think you can throw me?"

"I'm sure it would be an easy feat, for a warrior of my skills," he dipped his head down, tilting it to the side to look at her with one of his eyes as he purred a bit, "but the question would be, why would I want to throw away a perfectly good snack?"

Unintimidated, mostly due to being told how harmless he was to his fellow Maximals by a certain adopted uncle of hers, Ruby just smiled brightly. "I'm hardly snack sized."

"You're right," Dinobot countered, "I'd save you for dessert."

Her jaw dropped, unsure at how to take the comment as she watched him transform and quickly followed suit. The towering warrior looked around again out of habit before he bent over and laced his fingers together to give her a place to rest her foot. The smaller green and gold bot braced herself with her hands on his shoulders and nodded to him. On the count of three she hopped a bit, putting her other foot in his hands before Dinobot tossed her up into the air with as much strength as he could put behind it.

Fortunately she was light enough to be air-born quite easily, spinning slightly before transforming into her beast form. Dinobot was impressed at the grace she was able to pull off such a move, but recalling how Airazor pulled off her transformations in the air gave him the impression that female Cybertronians could probably make even the most mundane thing lovely.

Once she had a good current under her, Ruby scanned the area below her carefully. Dinobot had transformed back into his beast mode and was following her from the ground, but she kept far enough ahead of him that her scanners kept him on their edges. As she circled around, the frequency she had adjusted for came into focus. There were a few drops of altered energon that slowly trailed to a huge cavern.

It didn't surprise her to find yet another cavern system in the area, the mountain terrain was bound to be covered with them, but this one was large enough to hold her foe. As she began to descend Ruby noticed that Dinobot had caught the scent of the strange energon in the gentle breeze that was making its way across the rocky terrain.

"I've never detected anything like this," Dinobot told her as she landed next to him, his nose close to the ground to take in the scent. He saw the way she tensed as he examined the Cybertronian lifeblood, watching him as has he would prey. Then something clicked into place in his processor. This same scent was on her when she was so injured the day that Airazor had joined them, faint then but the same.

"My communicator can't access the base from here," Ruby informed him as calmly as she could manage, "and you can make it back to the base faster than I can. It might be one of Megatron's remote bases of operations."

The saurian snarled a bit, looking at the cavern that opened before them. She was hiding something, trying to prevent him from seeing something that could possibly be in the cavern. It was possible that she wasn't alone on that ship when it crashed. Was she protecting another passenger that came with her? And if she was, why?

"I say we scout out the cavern before we report back to Optimus," he said, gauging her reaction out of the corner of his eye. The way she ruffled up a bit giving him a bit further proof that she wasn't giving them the whole truth. "We could prevent a possible attack by acting now than spending the time trying to get a hold of the others at the base."

Ruby was shaking now. If Megatron was in there, the one she was fighting directly, he would be injured and pissed. The Maximal fem also knew that Dinobot would be a priority target for her foe and that the stupid warrior wanted to waltz right into the dragon's den! The problem was she wasn't able to come up with a counter to anything that he was suggesting. Proper protocol was to scout and report, and since when did Dinobot want to follow protocol?

Before she could even think of a reason to counter his point, the saurian started to walk towards the cave. Panicked, Ruby ran after him as fast as her little legs could manage, reaching his side as they reached the opening in the mountain side. Her senses were wide open, every little squeak and scampering of the creatures that resided inside making her fur stand on end.

Dinobot naturally noted the skittish nature of his partner, his mind working through all the possibilities. She seemed too at ease in their fold as if she knew, or at least knew about, the Maximals stranded there. There was also what he had overheard her saying in the hallway a few nights before. He wasn't sure why but hearing her refer to the smelly demolitions and infiltrations expert as 'Uncle' was in a way comforting.

They had gone ten meters into the cavern when they saw a huge fireball heading their direction. Both Maximals dove to the side, out of the way before they got singed, but the massive flaming projectile collided with the roof of the cavern. The concussive blast shook the mountain around them, the opening beginning to cave in.

Dinobot, despite another fireball heading their way, transformed and dove to cover the smaller Maximal from the falling rocks. Ruby, still in her beast mode, looked past her partner and in the direction the onslaught was coming from. Looking behind them, both Maximals saw their opening and chance of escape quickly become covered with the falling rocks, the last bits of daylight fading into nothing. The cavern was punctuated with an orange light as another fireball was making its way directly towards them.

"Run!" Ruby shouted, transforming as she propelled herself forward with Dinobot hot on her heels.

Barely avoiding the blast, both of them ran deeper into the cavern. Raw flame soon filled the rocky hollow, giving the source an eerie glow. Dinobot's optics widened in shock at what he saw, the tarnished metallic form, its head, the source of the flame, waving in the air wildly as the beast unleashed its furry around itself as if it couldn't see its prey any more.

Ruby glanced behind them, seeing Megatron in a blind rage as he threw his head around in an attempt to catch them in the flames. They were a 'two-for-one' special if she had ever seen one, if they were unfortunate enough to get caught in the blast. They needed to neutralize the threat before they could even begin to focus on escaping from the cave in. As they rounded around their attacker's tail, the flying squirrel looked up at the ceiling above them all. Some rocks were still falling; others looked loose in the orange light. Her wrists transformed into her weaponry and she aimed above Megatron, hoping to let lose more rocks down upon his tarnished crown.

Dinobot was at first confused as to her tactic until he saw the rocks falling, joining her plan with well placed shots from his eye lasers. Soon rocks began to rain down on the fire breathing creature, ceasing its attack and casting them all into complete darkness as Megatron let out a furious and pained scream that echoed around them.

Unfortunately the sudden lack of light gave the heroes another problem; instinctively needing to move for cover before their optics could properly adjust, Ruby tripped over a jutting rock and Dinobot tripped over her. They only felt the slope of the rock as they tumbled down, spooking all sorts of creature that called the cavern its home. They rolled uncontrollably for a good while, surrounded by the angry roar of the beast they left in a downpour of rubble and the dark until the ground evened out, giving the pair a sudden stop.

* * *

Back on the Axalon, Rhinox frowned at the readout across his screen. Sentinel had detected seismic activity in the area that Dinobot and Ruby's energy signatures had just disappeared from. "Optimus," the engineer twisted around to his commanding officer as Primal came closer, explaining the situation.

"Have Airazor meet me there," Primal wasted no time opening the roof doors. Crouching a bit, he yelled, "Prime Jets on!" Swiftly the Maximal leader flew off of the Axalon bridge and straight towards the area that the missing Maximals were last detected. Approaching the area, Primal transformed into his beast mode, letting his systems purge out the excessive unstable energon that had built up during his flight and on all fours slowly began to walk the same path the other two had.

The silver back gorilla paused, frowning thoughtfully at the glowing blue specks of liquid energon that dotted the ground, leading up to the collapsed cave entrance. Gently he dabbed two of his fingers into the energon, bringing them up to his nose to take in the scent. He had to know who it belonged to.

His first reaction was to jerk his head back, the pungent smell not even close to any of his Maximals. There was something really off about the energon, almost a burnt smell to it that made his olfactory sensor rebel, but then Primal paused as his internal systems detected something familiar. Looking down in shock at the glowing blue on his fingers, Primal's jaw dropped. This tainted energon belonged to Megatron.

Rubbing his fingers on the ground to remove the energon from them, Primal slowly looked at the dripping trail again, slowly adjusting his stance on all fours to take it all in. He had thought it belonged to an injured Maximal, that it was from someone fleeing from the rockslide, but looking at the pattern of how the energon fell, it came from someone going _into_ the cave.

"Prime…" he mumbled, making his way over to the pile of rocks that was most likely separating him from his crew and most likely the reason Ruby had joined up with them. Dust still floated up from the cave-in, but his sensors detected smoke as well. A caw from a bird above him gained Primal's attention, making him look up into the bright sky. Airazor carefully swooped down, flapping her wings to turn herself upright before landing on a rock nearby.

"What a mess," she said, looking around, "what do you think caused it?"

"That's what we're here to find out," Primal replied quietly. "We think Dinobot and Ruby are trapped inside, but I'm hoping that they're trying to find a way out." He then stood upright on his hind legs, focusing on the beautiful falcon, "Any idea if this cave has another entrance?"

"I did see some smoke coming from the mountain a bit further down as I approached the area," the scout stated with a flap of her wings, "it could be from what caused the cave in down here."

"It also could be our only way to get our people back," Primal affirmed, transforming back into his robot mode and taking off after Airazor.

They reached the area she had originally seen the smoke coming from, a faint trickle of it now escaping the high side of the natural structure. The cave in had apparently worked lose some internal rocks, making a natural vent. Landing on the side of the mountain in beast mode, Primal began to investigate the hole and gently work at the rocks around it. If it was unstable, and his crew was nearby, he didn't want to risk bringing more rocks down on them as he made the hole big enough for him and Airazor to enter, or Dinobot and Ruby to escape by.

* * *

Ruby awoke to pain all over her body, but mostly in her central processor. With a groan she rolled onto her back and fluffy tail, letting her sensors recalibrate before she even thought of sitting up. As she felt comfortable doing so she suddenly felt a massive clawed hand slam down onto her torso plating, pinning her in place. Her optics opened up, finding herself surrounded by darkness and being stared down by two brightly glowing red optics, anger tensing around their edges. She also felt the gentle moving air around her throat, knowing that Dinobot had his sword at the ready and at her throat.

"What game do you play?" he snarled.

"I… I…" she began, trying to think on how to answer and not get herself killed, "Chess."

"Liar!"

Ruby winced at the slight scrape of the blade as it spun over her metallic skin. Both of her hands, which had gripped the one of his that was pressing her to the rocky surface below, were shaking. He could unknowingly end everything that happened here and now. "I'm telling the truth."

Dinobot looked down at the optics below him as they stared back up at him, wide with fear, staring intently into his own, almost pleadingly. At seeing the spark from his blade coming into contact with her, he bared his teeth. He wanted her to answer him, and if he saw fit, stand before Primal and the others to be judged as a traitor. There were just so many questions swimming through his mind at the moment he had trouble picking one to start.

"You tried to send me away before we reached the cavern," he stated with a growl, "what the inferno attacked us?"

"I don't know," she answered, wincing reflexively as he pressed down on her with the hand on her torso, "a creature that has been mutated by bad energon? I don't know!"

"This was the area that Sentinel had you logged at the other night," he stated bluntly, feeling her still, like cornered prey, "and we just happen to come across a creature that bleeds energon?" Her wavering optics spoke to him louder than her silence on the matter. "What is the real reason you came here? What did you bring with you on that ship, Ruby?" When she didn't say anything, Dinobot lost his patients. "Answer me!" he yelled in her face.

Her optics closed as she began to shake worse, but eventually she calmed and looked back up at him. "I come from a future where the Beast Wars is already recorded in the history tomes," she began as calmly as she could, "a future that had been changed for the worst by the foe I face here. I did not bring my enemy here, but merely followed him."

"Why?"

"To make sure that the Beast Wars happen like they should. To make sure that history doesn't become the twisted nightmare that I had left." When he didn't ease up on her, only kept her pinned there in the silence of the cave, she continued. "My foe fights without honor and wishes to win by his code."

"Then you know everything that will happen?" he asked her quietly.

"Not all of it," she admitted, "but I know how it's suppose to end." She became fearful when he growled again. "I did not come to alter history myself, Dinobot," she pleaded, "I am not the master of your fate."

Ruby felt the weight ease off of her torso and the blade move from her throat as the Maximal warrior stood upright on his feet, the clink that came from his direction telling her that he had stored his blade away. Slowly she made it upright onto her own feet, but before she could even begin to get her bearings she felt Dinobot grab her by the arm and pull her closer to him.

His optics were right there, looking intently into hers. "You said your grand-sparker sent you, and by your appearance and the way you look up to him," Dinobot purred, "I'm guessing that Rhinox is the one that sent you."

The way her optics moved up and down in the dark told him that she was nodding her head, "I grew up at his knee, listening to his old war stories."

"What of the others?"

"I cannot tell you that, Dinobot," she answered seriously, "I've already jeopardized my mission sharing what I have with you."

He held her for a moment longer then growled as he gave her a little shove away. "You might want to consider not talking to yourself in the halls when you believe you are alone from now on."

She looked at him, watching his optics disappear before they reappeared again, like the twin moons in their monthly phases, as he apparently spun around to gain his bearings in the darkness. "You overheard?" Ruby asked quietly; not really shocked but more disappointed in herself.

"Your 'Uncle' Rattrap might have taught you to bluff," the saurian snarled, "but he didn't teach you much about not keeping it up when you're alone. You never know who might be watching and waiting for such flaws."

Her spark was pulsing rapidly in her torso, "Are… are you going to tell the others?"

His optics focused on hers again, softening a bit, "If I was not satisfied with your answers," he snarled, "yes."

"And," she began quietly, "are you?"

He was silent for the longest time, staring into the wide, pleading, and hopeful optics of this tiny warrior before him. Looking back over the past events with the information he had now shed new light on the subject of the mysterious Maximal female before him. She never directly involved herself in any of the crucial decision making discussions, always kept herself to the back and out of the way of the events that unfolded before them.

With the knowledge she had, even as limited as she claimed it to be, Ruby could have easily won the Beast Wars for them. She could have warned them all about the Predacons lying in wait as the Maximals repaired their ship to return home. She could have told them all about the attack during the attempt to make contact with the probe.

Then he recalled how she supported him about the clone at the base, standing firmly on _his_ side of things when the others all doubted him. Then there was all the damage she had received the day that Airazor joined them. Because Ruby didn't out right jump into the fighting, Dinobot had thought of her somewhat as a coward, or at least fearful of being injured, but after seeing her so hurt only to turn around and still fight with them spoke volumes.

Even recalling the glimpses of the 'foe' she claimed was hers, which was possibly larger than what little the fire in the cavern above hinted at, Dinobot came to one conclusion. This little rodent was no coward. Her mission was not an easy one, her burden heavy on her small shoulders.

"I will not betray your secret," he told her finally.

Ruby sighed with relief, making Dinobot smile in the dark. "Thank you," she whispered. Clearing her throat, the flying squirrel focused on their next problem. "Now how do we get out of here?"

Dinobot, paused as he let his olfactory sensor take the lead where his eyesight was uncertain. There was fresher air, but from where. Slowly spinning around, he let his data read out tell him, stating promptly, "This way."

Ruby reached out, taking the warrior's hand. Dinobot firmly gripped her tiny one in his own, leading her through the cave. It was half a megacycle later when they first saw the streams of sunlight coming through a hole in the roof. Shadows were moving over it, rocks falling away from the opening, as they slowly made their way closer to it.

Both shielded their optics as they looked up into the brightness. It looked like a feasible climb, but the hole was their main concern. The shadow moved over it again and another rock fell from around the opening. Dinobot quickly moved the smaller bot out of the way, in a very protective nature. When he checked on her, he couldn't help but return the bright smile she gave him.

They both looked up when the shadow moved over the hole again, a voice calling down to them. "Dinobot? Ruby?" It was Optimus'.

"We're here," Ruby called up happily.

"Thank Primus," the Maximal leader exhaled, "Are either of you injured?"

"A bit dented from the cave in," she replied, "but otherwise fine."

"Airazor and I will get you out as soon as we get the hole large enough," Primal informed them.

They didn't have to wait long, the other rocks pulling free as both of the Maximals outside worked together. Dinobot had Ruby climb up first, following close behind her as they scaled up the side. The sun was beginning to descend in the sky as they finally pulled themselves free from the mountain and began their way home.

* * *

Rhinox slowly made his way down the hallway, heading to Optimus' quarters as per the Maximal leader's request. Ruby had volunteered to take Dinobot's monitor duty that night, saying that it was in repayment of his help on getting her out of there. There was a difference between the two that the engineer was having trouble placing, and by Rattrap's glares at the former Predacon, he wasn't the only one to notice.

Dinobot was quiet, as usual, during their debriefing, but he was uncharacteristically agreeable with Ruby's account of events. The odd reading that Sentinel had picked up was reported to be some unstable energon that went critical on them when they had gone into the cave to investigate. They ran in the only direction that was open to them, which turned out to be further into the cavern, avoiding both the cave in and the explosion.

Optimus' door opened for Rhinox as he stepped closer to it, so he entered and allowed the door to close behind him. Primal had his back to the door, staring out the large window to the view below, his hands clasped behind his back. "You wanted to speak with me?" Rhinox asked.

"I did," Primal turned around, "I came across something that I believe makes Ruby's foe more dangerous than we realized."

Recalling the damage state she had been when Dinobot had retrieved her, Rhinox frowned, "What do you mean, Optimus?"

"I came across tainted energon," the commander stated bluntly, "droplets that led _to_ the cave that they were trapped in. I could be wrong, but it smelt like Megatron."

The engineer frowned, running his fingers over his metallic beard in thought, "That does explain _why_ the Preds haven't had a new team member join with them."

"Indeed," Primal replied, "which is fortunate for us."

"Do you think Dinobot knows anything about it?"

Optimus frowned, thinking on the matter, "If he doesn't, I'm sure it won't take him long to figure it out."

"What do we do about it?"

"Is there anything we really can do until we know for sure?" Primal gently touched the leaf to his plant. "The best we can do is make sure that he doesn't interfere with her mission."

Rhinox nodded, then bid his friend goodnight before leaving. Dinobot still wasn't the most trustworthy of the bunch, but Ruby didn't even seem to hesitate around him or have any reaction of fear. If the former Pred knew something about her mission, and wasn't reacting harshly towards the smaller bot; then Ruby felt comfortable with that knowledge.

**Author's Note: I don't own the show.**


	8. Ch 08: Dark Voyage

Ch 8 – Dark Voyage

Stealth wasn't his specialty, mostly due to his size, but when it came down to it the retired Maximal engineer could sneak in and out of most places with relative ease. Normally Rhinox wouldn't have made such risks except that he needed energon and other supplies. Carrying the large box in his arms, the Maximal dodged Vehicon patrols by ducking into dark crevices between the buildings until the whirl of their motors faded into the blackened night. The ground patrols were easy to avoid, the easiest being the tanks, but he tried at all costs to avoid the aerial ones.

Quietly making his way between two of the storage buildings, Rhinox gently set down his box next to the circular entrance way to the underground passages that had been his home recently. Placing his hands on either side of the round disk, he was able to move it with ease and little noise. A tether unit went around the supply box next, allowing him to lower it into the darkness below, and when the line began to slacken Rhinox quickly followed, pulling the disk cover back into place.

In the dark he found the boxes of supplies he had managed to scavenge, five in total, and place them on the hover cart he built from yet more spare parts. That was one of the things he had learned to do well in during his time in the Beast Wars, make functional devices out of whatever scrap he had handy. With his load secured, the omega Maximal transformed into his beast mode and backed into the harness system at the front of the cart. In the dark his aging optics were pretty much useless, but his other beast senses were still as sharp as ever. Despite the situation he was in, a smile curved his rhinoceros lips. That was a day, and the lesson learned from it, that will be hard to forget.

It was a story that Ruby also asked the most about when she would stay with him, especially when the others would visit. Unlike most of the younger Maximals, she had always been interested in what advantages a beast mode could offer and that little adventure was his best example that he could offer her.

Rhinox could recall one of the last times he had told her the story. Cheetor and Rattrap had stopped by to visit while Ruby was staying with him. She was still young, wide-eyed, and so full of questions. It wasn't enough for her to ask her grand-sparker about his old war stories, but when her uncles would visit they would be barraged with question after question.

* * *

Ruby, standing close to Rattrap's height, was all smiles as she brought in the glasses of energon for her visiting uncles. Her grand-sparker was sitting in his usual chair as they all caught up on what had been going on since they had all last spoken with one another. Always interested, Ruby sat herself down on the floor next to her grand-sparker's chair to listen.

Cheetor had recently been assigned to help with the adaptation of soldiers and scouts in training, using what he had learned from his part in the Beast Wars to guide the future generation of explorers to completely utilize all aspects of their forms. "But it was thanks to you and Tigatron that I had learned so much."

Rhinox just shook his head. "You've done the most work with your knowledge, Cheetor. I'm proud of you for that."

"Eh heh," Rattrap began with a smile, "Remember dat day? Ya know, the one when we got energon poisonin'?" Both he and Cheetor saw Ruby smile, as if she knew she was in for a wonderful treat.

Rhinox chuckled as he patted her head gently, "All too well, Rattrap, all too well."

"We was out searchin' fer energon," the Transmetal rodent began, " 'n I, naturally, was the best one suited fer the job 'cuz of my skills from some previous work I had."

"He and Dinobot had made it a contest on who could find more energon," Cheetor 'whispered' behind his hand towards Ruby, who giggled.

"Dat sourpuss saurian had nuthin' on me!" Rattrap protested, crossing his arms in a huff, "He just got lucky."

Rhinox chuckled, "Dinobot _did_ find the largest collection of crystals that day."

"He got lucky," Rattrap repeated in a bit of a huff, but Ruby could see his smile at remembering his friend, "but none of dat mattered, did it?"

"Nope," Cheetor answered, "because that's when Scorponok and Waspinator showed up and detonated it all in our faces."

"A huge 'Kablooey'," Rattrap emphasized with his hands for the sparkling.

"Unfortunately that much energon exploding right under us fried out most of our systems," Rhinox continued, "we were lucky that it didn't vaporize us all."

"No kidding," Cheetor laughed, "but then again I think a bit of Waspinator rubbed off on us that day."

"We came back online to find ourselves damaged and blind," her grand-sparker continued as he looked down at her, "Transforming into our beast modes slowed down the progression of the poison in our systems, but we were still in danger."

"Dat's when Rhinox took control over the situation 'n started ta lead us home," the rodent continued, "with dat stinkin' lizard lips complainin' the whole way!"

Cheetor chuckled, looking back down at Ruby, "We had gotten to one of the waterfalls that fed the river near the base before the Preds found us again. They shot the log bridge we were using to cross out from under us, sending us all into the water."

"But thanks to yer grand-sparker dere we put the hurt on ol' Waspinator and Terrorsaur before dey could do the same ta us."

"It was a good thing that Optimus found us in time though," Rhinox looked down at the sparking at his side, "transforming into our robot modes sped up the spread of the toxic energon in our systems, putting us in stasis lock."

* * *

Ruby heard the call from Tigatron that he had located the others. She was in the area, following the waterfalls and tributaries that fed the one under the base when she was first notified that the four had gone missing. Airazor caught up to her as they descended through the mist to find Optimus and Tigatron already there. Both ladies transformed as they landed, helping check on their friends.

Primal began to give orders on who was to carry whom, having Tigatron and Ruby load up Dinobot on his back first. Airazor transformed, gently grabbing Rattrap in her taloned claws to follow Optimus to the base. After going into beast mode, Tigatron carried Cheetor on his back.

This left Ruby alone with Rhinox. In the quite by the river, she carefully sat down next to him and placed his head on her lap. "I'm here," she assured him quietly, "I'll protect you."

* * *

Rhinox made it to safety, his supplies secured. Even rationing his energon like had been what he had gotten tonight was not going to last him forever and runs up to the surface were becoming more and more dangerous. He knew that the Vehicons were slowly closing in on his position the more supplies he had to get. Eventually they would triangulate his position from all the places he had taken supplies from.

Sitting down at his work table, the Maximal engineer began to work again on the defensive measures he had been preparing for the inevitable day that his sanctuary crumbled around him. He was just hoping that Ruby was successful before that happened.

**Author's Note: I do not own this show!**


	9. Ch 09: The Low Road

Ch 9 – The Low Road

It was a bright, sunny day, a perfectly gorgeous day to have the window open. It made her task easier to handle at least. Ruby sighed as she carefully scooped up the broken clay flower pots that did not survive the Predacon infestation of the base, grateful that she had packed away her chess set before the worst of the energon powered electrical storm had hit. After the storm had passed, damaging the base in the process, the flying squirrel had to check the cave that she and Dinobot had left the Megatron from the future in. The storm had apparently aided the tarnished tyrant in his escape, which ended her little respite. When she had returned to the Axalon the Predacons were already in their full attack and Primal gave the order for the Maximals to retreat.

In her brief contact with the 'historic' Decepticon Starscream Ruby had found the 'Con lack luster, disappointing, and easy to manipulate. Everything her Grand-sparker had told her he'd be. She couldn't help but feel sorry for poor Waspinator though.

Using her tail as a broom, the Maximal fem was able to get the dirt from the broken flower pots cleaned up. Some of her plants were salvageable, but were nowhere near what had originally filled her quaint chamber. Dumping the dirt out the window, Ruby had to look around as she enjoyed the breeze. Just a little ways down towards the back of the ship she caught Dinobot and Rattrap out tending to a recently growing problem. Smirking, she crossed her arms and rested with them on the window sill as she watched them bicker back and forth while they chopped away at the problem. Their constant bickering was probably what got those two the job in the first place.

Uncle Rattrap had said that he and Dinobot would argue from time to time but she was beginning to believe that was an understatement. The rodent made every dig he could to get the saurian to react and in return the saurian would put the rodent in his place, or at least attempt to. With his size and strength, Ruby knew that if Dinobot _really _wanted to punish Rattrap he could. She had a feeling that he did all this bickering to make sure that he didn't become too comfortable with the Maximals.

As Rattrap began to lament about his current line of work, hacking away at the vines with one of the blades he borrowed from Primal, he also began to stir the anger of Dinobot, who at this point was already sick of the rodent's complaints. Trying to take the higher road in the argument, the warrior began to verbally pound the lesson into the infiltrator's head that strategically it was prudent to prune the wayward produce.

Ruby had to stifle her giggles with a hand over her mouth as Dinobot bent over to gather up what he had recently mowed, giving Rattrap a sizeable opening. Unable to resist, the wily rodent teed one of the large bean pods into the target provided. This naturally sent the saurian into a savage tizzy as he soared through the air to pounce his prey. As she watched the two, Ruby couldn't help but laugh and shake her head.

Her mirth ended abruptly at the laser shot that began to surround the pair down below, making her jerk upright and run out of the room. As she reached the loading ramp, she found Rhinox already there, the ramp lowering. Quickly she jumped down onto the platform, her weaponry securing up around her wrists as she and her Grand-sparker shared a nod. As the lift began to clear the opening below, Ruby knelt down in front of the engineer and opened fire with him as he began to give cover for the two bickering Maximals. As the shells piled up around them, Ruby couldn't believe the pair as they still continued their personal fight even though the Preds were aiming at them, despite Rhinox's constant orders to return to the base. Personally Ruby decided that she was going to cash in quite a few of those night monitoring duties for this.

The Maximals were so focused on the Pred flyers, or their own argument, that no one noticed Tarantulas creeping closer, using their distraction to his full advantage. Aiming with his latest weapon, the mad scientist sent the projectile flying towards them. Dinobot saw it first, making him drop Rattrap in the surprise, but it clipped him on the side of the head and knocked him to the ground.

Ruby saw the projectile out of the corner of her eye, but had no time to warn anyone as it came closer. It latched onto her Grand-sparker's face; the six little legs locking it into place as the system force fed its contents into its captor. She felt more than saw Rhinox flying backwards as it hit him. "No!" she screamed in panic as she let her weaponry retract as she ran to his side as he struggled with the thing attached to his face, gargling as he fought with it.

"Rhinox!" Rattrap screamed in horror as he ran to his friend.

In anger Dinobot focused his full fury on Tarantulas, since the spider had openly revealed his location as he watched the progress of his latest device. The spider, who was unprepared for the assault to be directed on him, was shot several times, bouncing like a rubber ball.

As he took in the situation, Rattrap attempted to reassure the downed Maximal, "Hang on big guy." At seeing Ruby in near hysterics as she tried pulling the arms of the device free from around Rhinox's face, the infiltrator called to Dinobot to aid him. "Hey! Give me a hand here!" Not waiting for the saurian, Rattrap leapt onto Rhinox's torso and pulled with all of his might to dislodge the device. With a lot of effort it came free, sending the rodent flying backwards.

When Sentinel went online the lift began to rise back into the ship. Ruby pulled Rhinox's head into her lap as she waited for the painfully slow lift to stop. She was never told any of this. Surely if this really happened to him Rhinox would have told her. Did her foe somehow manage to plan out an attack and utilize the Predacons on the planet to do it?

"Why couldn't you two just get in the ship like he told you?" she snapped when Rattrap tried to put his hand on her shoulder in a supportive manner. As the smaller Maximal jerked away, she shot Dinobot a glare that made him take a couple steps back, his eyes shifting around as he felt the weight of the guilt she rightfully placed on him.

When the lift finally stopped they were greeted by Optimus and Cheetor, who were waiting for them at Rattrap's call. Each of the male Maximals grabbed one of Rhionx's appendages to carry the much larger Maximal to the CR chamber, which Ruby ran ahead to prepare.

As the computer ran its scans Ruby waited right next to Rattrap at the CR chamber door, looking in on their ill friend. She kept fidgeting, having to hold onto her arms to keep from hitting something or someone, specifically the bot next to her. When Primal commanded the computer to give him the status of his crew member they all focused on the holographic image.

"Unit has been infected with an energon discharge virus of unknown type," the monotone male voice began, "If unchecked, his system will begin to spontaneously discharge energon reserves until depleted."

"Can you cure it?" Primal inquired.

Before the system could respond the loudest gasps of breath began to come from the CR chamber, making everyone focus intently on the door before the chamber's occupant let out a huge sneeze. The energon backed explosion of air from Rhinox sent the top flying, the walls falling away without the top to keep them in place. Ruby had just barely missed being hit by the door as she rushed to Rhinox's side as he sniffled in the after affects.

"Ah," Primal sighed, taking mental note of the damage as he realized the chamber was now useless, "never mind."

Things were calm for a moment before the infected Maximal began to have a discharge fit, sending bolts of energon every which way and his comrades diving for cover. Ruby, who was still at his side, had ducked down beside him and covered her head to avoid being hit by his arms. When the table was blown away, the rest of the Maximals losing their cover, Cheetor recalled what Rhinox had suggested the last time there was a problem with their energon.

"Quick!" he shouted, "go to beast mode."

With a roar, Rhinox shifted forms and let out a sigh of relief as his insides seemed to settle. "Whew, that's better." Ruby began to brush her hand soothingly down his side since she was the only other Maximal that had not been hiding under the table. As it began to look like the shift to beast mode was holding the worst of it off, the others began to relax from their crouched positions on the floor.

"Heh, yeah!" Rattrap smiled down at the scout, giving him a thumb up of approval, "Great thinkin' Spots!" But, alas, the problem was not completely solved by such a simple solution, evident by the next sneeze that sent an energon bolt into the lift's glass door.

As the others began to discuss what to do about the issue, Ruby stayed by her Grand-sparker's side as she continued to soothe him and swearing to throw Megatron's little scheme back in his scaly face. When Primal began to issue orders, she was privately relieved that he let her stay. Dinobot and Rattrap, on the other hand, were not pleased to be assigned to work together on yet another mission. As they began to try to counter the order Ruby sent them a look that shut both of them up instantly. She was quite mad at both of them for what had happened and wasn't afraid to let them know it.

As Dinobot looked at the tiny Maximal fem as she reined in her anger with a patience that it seemed up to this point that Rhinox was the only one capable of. It appeared that the gentle giant had a feisty little sparkling that thought the universe of him and, having finally realized the glaringly obvious, knew that there would be the inferno to pay if they failed to get the counter-virus in time. With a grunt, both he and Rattrap headed to the lift with the broken door and departed the ship.

Cheetor and Optimus quickly replaced the table, leading Rhinox over to it to give him a more comfortable place to rest. Now in robot mode, the engineer groaned as he let his body relax. Feeling a pair of tiny hands take a hold of his own left one, Rhinox smiled weakly at Ruby as she knelt on the table next to him. "I'll be ok," he promised her.

"I hope so," she said, trying to smile, "Just rest. We'll take care of you."

The comm-channels were kept open to stay in touch with Dinobot and Rattrap as they headed out after Tarantulas, the three still on the base rather annoyed at the fact that the pair had not gotten a click away from the base before they started to bicker again.

"Sheesh, and they call _me_ the immature one," Cheetor grumbled, "Hey, Optimus," he turned from his station to look at his commanding officer, "are you sure it was a good idea sending those two out together?"

"To be honest?" Primal already sounded resigned to having to listen to the bickering, "No, but their squabbling has caused problems before. They'll either learn to work together or destroy each other." His little speech was interrupted by another blast of energon from Rhinox, aimed right at the ceiling overhead, making both Primal and Ruby shield themselves from falling debris. As he looked up at the damage, he bluntly spoke his mind. "Right now I don't really care which."

* * *

It was a slow process but Megatron was finally able to dig himself out of the pile of rock that those two despicable Maximals had trapped him under. Thanks to the damage that energon storm did to the mountain side, the one he recalled that brought that traitorous Starscream temporarily into his fold, he was able to break free. The only fortunate thing that happened during his forced 'break' was that his beast mode had a chance to complete its repairs.

When he first saw Ruby and Dinobot at the cave entrance, the smaller Maximal was trying to keep the Predacon traitor from entering. Knowing the former Predacon extremely well Megatron knew Dinobot wouldn't let the tiny fem deter him, and he walked right into the dragon's lair. In a rage he attacked the pair, his anger over the last encounter with Ruby blinding him to the caution he needed in such a small space. He recalled that not only did they trap him under the rubble but themselves as well. No doubt they had also escaped by now.

Crawling over the mountainous terrain Megatron was swearing revenge now on all of the Maximals, even if it cost him his element of surprise. Upon cresting over the last mountain top that overlooked the Axalon the huge dragon gave a vicious smile down upon his prey.

"You Maximals don't stand a chance against me in this powerful form, nooo," he sneered down at them, "not when _I'm_ a powerful Transmetal enhanced by the spark of the original Megatron. First things first, I will expose you, Ruby, for what you really are. Then I will begin to rip each and every one of those you came to save to shreds right in front of your very optics, oh yeess. Starting with your precious Grand-sparker! And when you're weeping over your losses I will _rip_ you apart piece by fluffy little piece; past the point of you begging for me to stop. Then, when there's only the minimum for you to survive, I will drop your mangled body off as a gift to myself so you can watch me win the Beast Wars. Then you will adorn the front of my victory ship as a herald to the fate that awaits all Maximals!"

As his processor ran through all the terrible things he was going to do each of the Maximals that made up the Axalon's crew an echoing sneeze followed by a huge energon bolt that headed straight for him. Dropping to the rocks, Megatron stared wide eyed and slack jawed at the ship that it had originated from. He remembered the energon discharge virus that he had Tarantulas infect Rhinox with, and the 'end' result of it. Quickly leaping down from his perch Megatron went in search of another cave to hide in; there was no way he was going anywhere near that humiliation again, nooo.

* * *

The remaining Maximals on the ship had taken refuge in the Stasis Pod storage bay, a room that was of little use for its original intent and had less in it to damage. As Primal and Cheetor took to the safety behind crates and blast shields, working on the system that was keeping their engineer powered directly from the ship's systems and a plan of action to save him, Ruby stayed by Rhinox's side. Looking out at his dear friend, who was in beast mode and groaning after sending another shot of energon through the ship's hull, and the little fem next to him; Primal had to admire her courage. She stayed by Rhinox's side despite the possibility of being hit, even evading a few bolts in the process. Her loyalty was without question as he watched Ruby double check the jumper cables they had attached to Rhinox's feet before she moved back up to soothe her hand over his head.

They had listened as she told stories to the sick Maximal, both tales she had heard from her human friends and old Cybertronian stories about the Great War and the Autobot heroes of that era. It kept Rhinox as relaxed as possible, which in turn kept the virus from spreading as quickly through his system. It appeared to Primal that Rhniox's future trust in this young fem had been well placed.

As Cheetor gave him an update on both the energy storage of the ship and the lack of contact with Dinobot and Rattrap, the Maximal leader came to a hard conclusion. "Better call Tigatron and Airazor," he said on a sigh, "We may have to take our complaints to Megatron himself."

As soon as the two Maximal scouts were detected by Sentinel, Cheetor and Optimus rushed to meet them outside the base. Ruby did her best to keep Rhinox resting, but he was too insistent on joining the others. She had to smile though; he was trying his best to not let it bother him. They made it to the lift and out of the ship without any more holes blown into the hull.

"Wait, I'm coming, too," Rhinox said weakly, almost losing his balance as the lift suddenly stopped.

"Hey, hang on brute buddy," the scout told him gently, "you're a little under the weather, aren't'cha?"

"Hey!" the engineer protested the best he could, "if I'm going to wreck the wallpaper, I might as well do it on Pred turf." He had walked closer to the others, but it was still obvious that he was extremely weak as he fell forward.

Primal being the closest caught his friend easily. "You're power cells are dangerously low, Rhinox. Better convert to beast mode and eat something. It'll keep your energy up." Optimus tried to smile hopefully, recalling that their beast systems could utilize food in the same fashion as the organics they were scanned from.

"Good idea," the engineer agreed, swiftly transforming.

As Primal issued orders to the others, Ruby, who was now in beast form as well, stayed behind to keep an eye on Rhinox while he ate. The bean vines, being the closest source of food, began to disappear to the ravenous appetite of a very hungry Maximal. The flying squirrel had grabbed a bean and began to nibble on as she watched the rhino devour his meal with a renewed gusto. Soon, once his digestive system was full, they pair headed off to find the others, all the while leaving a scorch mark across the landscape.

Airazor, who had flown ahead of the others, had spotted a majority of the Preds all quickly making their way to an underground area. Adjusting her optic sensors, she began her scan for energy signatures, both friend and foe. The Preds had seemed to all gather in one spot, all meandering around a tiny area as if waiting. In the tunnels leading to the chamber they were crowded into were two Maximal signatures matching Dinobot and Rattrap, with them was a single Pred signature. Using the wind currents, she turned to rendezvous with Optimus as he approached.

Transforming into his beast mode, Primal listened to her report. "It seems that the Predacons are attempting to ambush Rattrap and Dinobot."

"It'll take a few cycles for them to reach the Pred nest," Airazor said, "but surely they'll be expecting some sort of trap."

"I know Rattrap would be," the gorilla agreed, "and hopefully Dinobot would heed him. If not…" Primal drew off with a sign. Turning to survey the area, the Maximal leader frowned, "Let's scan the surrounding tunnels for the thinnest rock wall to where the Preds are lying in wait and try to nip this problem in the bud. We'll have the others meet us there."

Ruby and Rhinox arrived as quickly as they could, transforming as the others did. The plan was to wait for Rhinox to let off a bolt, hopefully aiming at the rock that was between them and the Preds, and ambush the ambush before the trap sprung on Dinobot and Rattrap. They didn't have to wait long before Rhinox let out another powerful sneeze, obliterating the rock wall before them.

As the dust cleared, Primal ordered, "Nobody move!" But any triumph in their explosive entrance came to a screeching halt as Rattrap pushed his way past the Predacons he just finished disarming.

"Hehey! Scrape Ape!" the Maximal spy greeted his commander with a bit of a saunter to his step, "Nice of ya ta show, but, uh, we've already been here, done that."

"Situation," Dinobot even saluted Primal, snubbing Megatron in the process, "under control."

"I think not, nooo, for I still have," Megatron stated firmly, surprising the Maximals as he held up his dinosaur-headed hand, the container with the glowing green liquid in it firmly in its jaws, "the counter virus. And unless you immediately convert to beast mode and surrender your green comrade will soon go offline," he gave the container a squeeze to drive his point in further, "permanently."

Ruby's hands tightened into fists at her side, the glare she gave the Predacon leader enough to make even Unicron's energon run cold. Despite it being this Megatron behind the scheme, the flying squirrel had no qualms in scrapping him here and now simply because he pulled such a stunt. She heard Rhinox and Optimus discuss the next play, Primal insisting that saving his friend's life was worth any cost before he gave the order to the others to transform.

The nano-cycles ticked by slowly as they waited in beast mode for Megaton to begin his gloating. Right as the purple tyrant began, all attention turned to Rhinox. Optimus and Ruby checked on him as his stomach began to make the oddest gurgling sounds.

"What's wrong?" Primal asked.

"Wild bean vines," Rhinox groaned, "hard to digest." He managed to get up to all fours and slowly start to turn himself around.

"Do _not_ turn your back on _me_, Maximal scum!" Megatron demanded, angered by this insolent behavior from the ill Maximal.

All the other Maximals gave the rhinoceros plenty of room as he finished the 180 degree turn, all worried about the strange noises that were coming from him. Optimus had pulled Ruby back with him, fearful of what might happen.

"Oh no," the Predacon leader had a sinking feeling in the pit of his energon pump, "not that!" Megatron's screams were blasted out of existence by the worst smelling energon bomb known to Cybertron. The parts of Tarantulas' lab that were behind the gassy Maximal were nearly a total loss with no Predacon in sight.

"Oh!" Primal groaned, waving his hand in front of his nose to keep his olfactory system from over loading, "that did it. Let's go!"

Still beside Primal Ruby was tensed up, every single strand of her fur frizzed and standing on end, her claws gripping the rocks below her as she coughed and twitched. Now she understood _why_ her grand-sparker never told her this particular story. Maybe beast modes weren't all they were cracked up to be after all.

The Maximals wasted no time in retreating from the site of their victory, all wishing for the fresh air as opposed to the blue-smoggy stench around them; Rattrap passing the counter virus to Airazor to carry home. For once in their lives they all were glad that the Axalon was so far away, long enough they hoped it gave their fur time to air out. They all flanked Rhinox during their return trip; no one dared walk in front or behind him as he was now letting out smaller poofs of energon gas from both ends.

Once back at the base they promptly set up the counter virus so that it would get to working on ridding Rhinox of the discharge virus and took turns washing the smell off. Fortunately since they were all in beast mode the stench only stuck to those parts. Those who weren't cleaning were working on the repairs.

Ruby made it onto the bridge right as Dinobot and Rattrap were starting in on yet another fight, shaking her head slowly at the pair before moving over to check on Rhinox before getting to work on replacing the station screens. Everyone on the bridge stopped what they were doing as Rhinox suddenly began to gasp for breath again. He gave several sneezes that sent him spinning around in his chair and eventually out of it.

With a helpless shrug from the floor, Rhinox said the only thing that could come to mind about sending them all into a panic. "Sorry."

"It could have been worse," Cheetor reminded them, "right?"

Optimus, Rattrap, and Ruby had to laugh as they realized that the scout was right. It could have been worse.

Ruby helped Rhinox back into his seat, smiling at him as she whispered, "This was an adventure I never expected."

**Author's Note: I do not own the show.**

Y'all knew I couldn't pass _this_ one up, right?


	10. Ch 10: Before the Storm

Ch 10 – Before the Storm

Ruby stood before the pile of stone that had marked the grave of a dear friend, though purely animal Snow Stalker had become dear to her spark. The white tiger that had been the base form Tigatron's stasis pod had scanned and his companion as he had searched for what he truly was, in turn had come to accept Ruby and Airazor as they had patrolled and spent time with the Maximal scout. The flying squirrel based fighter knelt beside the grave before placing the clay tiger on top of the pile of stones. It was painted exactly like the friend that it marked, the pose a watchful, yet calmly sitting feline as it overlooked the valley below. She knew of the loss from stories that Cheetor had told her, but that loss was still painful and it made the futuristic fighter question herself in her mission.

'Can I really just knowingly let my friends go to their graves?' she thought as she focused on the statuette, which was catching the last gleaming light of the sunset behind her. 'The Maximals need to win the Beast Wars, does it matter how that comes about in the end? Would you try to save them, Grand-sparker? Even knowing their fate, would you be asking yourself these same questions?'

A cold chill passed through the air around her, but Ruby just sighed. "I know you're there."Metal claws scraping across stone came closer to her as she stood up and calmly turned around.

Megatron simply sneered down at the tiny Maximal as he stopped a few dozen feet away. "Preparing your grave, Maximal?"

"Mourning the loss of a friend," she answered simply.

Chuckling, the tarnished dragon turned his attention to the grave behind her. "That is what makes you Maximals weak, yeess. Sentiment and useless bonds of friendship have no place in a war."

"That's where you're wrong, Meggsie." Ruby knew using the nickname was an open taunt, but she kept an eye open for any serious reactions from her foe. "It's our caring nature that binds us together into a force that you were never able to defeat." Seeing his anger begin to peak, Ruby tilted her head to the side. "Just remember this, you called for the cease fire in the case of the Vok. Any attack you make on any Maximal during this time will only complicate things for your past counterpart. So, check."

As he jerked forward to snap the tiny fem in his jaws Ruby actually ran backwards, back flipping over the edge of the cliff face, and transformed in mid-air to glide away. Megatron was fuming as he watched her disappear into the dark sky. With nothing else to truly focus on he turned back towards Snow Stalker's grave and swatted the statuette off of it, sending it into the rock face to shatter before he began his slow climb back down the mountain.

The last thing he wished to admit was that the troublesome Maximal was right; Megatron could do nothing while the cease fire was in place. The Maximal fools were crucial against the Vok attack, especially Optimus Primal's sacrifice to destroy the weapon. The only choice he had was to sit back in the protection of some cavern and wait. Or was it?

Megatron glared at her retreating form, rethinking all of his options. The Maximals did not need to use their weapons to defeat the Predacons during his little cease fire. If they were able to get away with crippling his forces in that manner, then he could do so as well. As his mind focused on the one target that needed to be destroyed before he caused any more trouble, the dragon started his way down the mountainside. He would eliminate Dinobot before his former second-in-command stole the golden disks, and then he would make sure Ruby suffered dearly for her insolence.

* * *

Ruby had returned to the Axalon with just enough time to grab a quick refreshing of energon before she took over for Cheetor on the monitor duty. With her beast form's nocturnal nature, and the tendency for the others to be resting, it gave her plenty of time to think. She knew that Optimus had left earlier in the evening to search out the alien energy anomaly Tigatron had reported in on. From what Primal had told her during her training, Megatron had called for a truce because of Vok. Stressful times were ahead for the Maximals as they had to first figure out the alien agenda for themselves and figure out how to counter it. Ruby was just hoping that she would be right in guessing that her foe would not interfere during this time because he needed all figures to remain in play, but she wouldn't let that keep her from slacking on her watch for the tarnished dictator.

It was mid morning, well after Rhinox had relieved her of her overnight monitor duty, when Primal had returned with the strange news. Having remained on the bridge to overlook the data the Maximal engineer scanned over from the ship's diagnostics that ran every night, Ruby settled herself towards the back as they awaited the others to join them on the bridge.

Seeing everyone that stayed on the ship was present, Primal took a deep breath as he paused in his pacing before he began to speak. "Megatron has requested a truce and I've agreed."

"A truce?!" Rattrap blurted out, "aw, for bootin' up cold."

Dinobot snarled with anger, for once on the vermin's side, "I cannot _believe_ you agreed to this."

"What could I do?" Optimus lifted his hands helplessly as he turned around to the others, "He was right. I'm a Maximal, I have to give peace a chance. No matter how unlikely it seems."

Rhinox, who had remained thoughtful as the others talked around him, spoke his opinion. "Do you think this has something to do with that alien energy anomaly?"

"It's got to," Primal agreed. As he walked off towards the side to look out of the windows the lifted view screens provided, he continued. "Megatron's found out something, something that's got him so worried he doesn't even want to _think_ about us."

"Eh, I'm insulted," the spy quipped.

Unable to hold back his worry, Cheetor was quick to say what was on everyone else's minds. "In that case we better find out what it is."

Using the scout's words as if they were his own, Primal turned and gave a smirk towards his best hope in gaining that information. Rattrap, having noticed just who Primal was looking at, took the defensive.

"Whoa, whoa, whoa!" the rodent said as he held his hands up and backed away from the gorilla leader, "You mean I gotta infiltrate that Pred base _again_?"

"That might be a truce violation," Rhinox reminded his friend.

"Not if he's unarmed," Cheetor offered.

Having his one hope gain more holes in it that a slice of Swiss cheese, Rattrap turned a non-too friendly glare at the youngest one among them. "Thanks a slaggin' skid-plate full, pussycat."

"The vermin is right," Dinobot attempted to bring an important detail to light, "Megatron will surely anticipate this move."

"So?" Optimus said non-chalantly, having focused out the window again, "let him." As the others passed around puzzled looks, Ruby simply smiled. It was from this one bot alone that she had learned the most about her enemy, and for good reason. They listened carefully as Primal began to tell them of his plan.

* * *

As the others prepared, Optimus had requested that Ruby stay on hand as Rattrap and Airazor left. The Maximal leader was asking her opinion on a few things, making the flying squirrel raise an eye ridge more than once at him. Much like when they had played chess during his recovery Primal was trying to gain information about her, his excuse this time was that he noticed she would observe more than speak about what was happening around her and that gave her a unique view. Carefully dancing around the more dangerous subjects, Ruby offered her suggestions about security measures around the ship and the surrounding areas.

The pair finally settled on a holographic image of the Darkside when their infiltration team returned. Airazor dropped Rattrap through the hatch, both transforming before their feet hit the floor, and began to give Optimus their 'bad' news.

"So you didn't get in?" Primal asked, calmly looking up at Airazor over the holographic image.

"Not even close," she answered.

Rattrap gave a short laugh of disbelief as he pulled out a datapad from under his torso plating, "I'm tellin' ya, I'd hate ta sell encyclopedias in _that_ neighborhood." Tossing the datapad to the side, he watched as Ruby caught it and looked it over with a smile while Airazor continued their report as Primal walked over to them.

"Megatron just calmly shut down the defenses and tossed us out."

"So you failed?" Primal asked calmly.

"Absolutely!" the spy answered quite cheerfully.

"Completely," the peregrine falcon affirmed. Slowly they all turned pleased smiles to one another, knowing that they had managed to fool Megatron into thinking that their one attempt had been ruined and that allowed for Tigatron to infiltrate the Predacon ship. Now began the slow wait for Tigatron's report.

* * *

With a snarl, Dinobot looked down at the tiny rodent beside him. The fact that she was reacting so calmly to everything that had been going on since Primal broke the news about the truce gave him a sense of peace about the ordeal. She either knew that this was all turning out how it was suppose to or she hid her trepidation well. Glad she was at least speaking to him again since the day Rhinox had been injected with the energon discharge virus, the former Predacon did his best not to ask her of this day's outcome. He honestly doubted she would answer him truthfully anyway.

Looking from her back down to the ship he had once called his home, Dinobot waited with the others for Tigatron's signal. Rattrap was the official lookout, but Optimus had planned for his possible discovery and had outlined a detailed escape plan.

Ruby's head jerked to the side, making her face away from the Darkside as her internal scanners detected something strange. Silently wishing that she was wrong, she used the excuse to Dinobot that she felt she needed to be up higher to gain a better view of the area. Knowing that it was possibly her true mission calling her into action the saurian turned away from her and focused on his part of the plan.

It didn't take her long to find a cliff high enough to be able to overlook the whole area. Turning her internal sensors to their highest settings, Ruby slowly scanned the area around her. Megatron _was_ nearby, but his signal was weak. The storm that had been building up around them for most of the day could be a factor to the readout, but she couldn't shake the feeling that he was right there.

As Tigatron's signal lit the sky, she watched the others handle the Predacons giving chase to the white tiger. Focusing down on Dinobot as he stood by calmly as bait to the trap he had laid out for Tarantulas and Black Arachnia , she saw the tarnished dragon slowly making his way across the rocky ground on the other side of the ridge that separated him from his prey. She couldn't shoot at him because that would violate the truce, nor could she give Dinobot a warning because that could bring a paradox. Stepping closer to the edge, Ruby had to brace herself as a few of the rocks gave way under her. A quick search to the rocks beside her gave her her answer.

Leaping from her perch Ruby began to hop on the pile of boulders that were waiting just perfectly to tumble down the mountain side, squeaking each time she landed. A few of the smaller ones rained down on Megatron below, making him stop to look up at her before the whole massive pile gave way. He only had time to cover his head with his wings before becoming buried in the tons of rocks that rained down on him.

Ruby had leapt free of the avalanche as it gave way and soared her way over to where the pile now rested. Landing swiftly, she listened carefully to hear where the groans were coming from and pounced on that part of the pile a couple more times for good measure. "Now stay down!" she ordered firmly before she made her way over to where Optimus and Dinobot were watching the others handle the rest of the Predacons. She reached their sides in time to watch Rattrap and Rhinox prank Terrorsaur.

"Peaceful," she heard Dinobot tell Optimus over her.

"Very peaceful," their commander replied, quite pleased with his crew's resourceful thinking. Both Maximal males looked down at Ruby as she was shaking, trying to hold in her laughter when Rhinox sat down on Terrorsaur.

* * *

In the sanctuary of her room, Ruby stood beside her window as she watched the powerful storm raving havoc on the world outside of the ship. They had returned to the Axalon shortly before the storm clouds broke, angrily pouring their bounty over the landscape. It seemed that the world shared in the Maximal's worry over the imminent return of the alien race that left behind the odd ruins that they had discovered.

Optimus and Rhinox were focusing on the plans the Maximals would need to hopefully survive what was to come, the others helped prepare the Axalon for whatever might come their way. Ruby helped where she could, but it was hard not to come out right and tell them all about the Vok and what they were planning on doing.

"Please don't let me screw this up," she whispered to her reflection.

**Author's Note: I don't own the show.**

Thanks for reading.


	11. Ch 11: Other Voices

Setting the Board – Ch 11 – Other Voices

Pain was the first thing to greet her as she woke up; and whatever that noise was that was making her head buzz wasn't helping. Moving only shot more pain through her circuitry, making her cry out some.

"She's coming to."

Forcing her optics open, despite the pain the light caused, Ruby mumbled as she thought she recognized the voice. "AR? That you?"

"And yer ever loveable rat," Rattrap said somewhat cheerfully, though the injured Maximal could tell it was forced. "Did de spiders get ya, too?"

Rattrap and Airazor were quick to pull Ruby from the damaged wall, the pipes broken from her impact, the other female Maximal helping her stand as the espionage expert took in the damage. Ruby's free hand naturally went to her burnt and dented armor, making her wince as fresh pain shot through her systems. Carefully she checked her temporal stabilization device and gave a sigh of relief that it was undamaged.

"Inferno surprised me," she mumbled dropping her hand to her side.

"Oh, dat's just great," the male rodent mumbled, "If it ain't enough ta have de spiders runnin' loose 'round the base, we got de nutty ant ta deal with, too."

"Let's get you to the CR chamber," Airazor said as she began to walk her friend in that direction.

Ruby groaned in pain and made them stop. "No," she got out tightly, taking a couple deep breaths, "if I move now I'm going to toss up my energon. I can make my way to the bridge, you two need to find the bugs and stop them."

Airazor shared a look with Rattrap, who was currently gauging their friend. When he nodded, she helped Ruby lean up against the wall. With a gentle pat of assurance on her shoulder, the falcon quickly followed the rat down the hallway.

Despite the groggy feeling in her processor Ruby watched as the pair left before looking in the direction of the bridge. With a grunt she pushed herself away from the wall and slowly took a couple steps in that direction, pausing when the pain made her too dizzy to continue.

Rhinox had called her to the bridge shortly after Optimus had left to investigate the alien signal that had landed on the planet. One of the long range sensor circuits had gone out so she ran off the bridge to fix it and it was on her way that Inferno had surprised her. She only just registered the Predacon standing before her before he shot her nearly point blank in the lower torso armor and sent her flying down the intersecting hallway and crashing into the hall.

The ship rumbling under her feet as she made her slow progress only added to the pain she was already in, but when the ship shifted sharply under her she cried out as she hit the wall again. With nothing else left, Ruby slowly slumped to the floor. So this was the Vok attack on the planet, the energy to energon chain reaction that was to destroy the planet.

Looking around her, the flying squirrel finally just let her head slump back against the shaking wall. There was nothing she could do to help or prevent this from happening, but despite this knowledge she still felt completely helpless. The board will now be completely set for hers and Megatron's deadly game. With that running through her processor, Ruby let herself power down into repair mode.

* * *

As the search party disappeared into the dark night sky, Rhinox stowed his chain gun in his subspace pocket. Energon was not the only thing he was running low on, ammunition was in short supply. The less direct confrontation he had to handle the better.

Carefully peeking out from the shadow he hid in, the Omega Maximal quickly darted from his hiding place to the building across the roadway. Pressed against the wall he did another quick search for any approaching Vehicons before sneaking around to the back of the building. This was one of the closest energon storage buildings to his sanctuary, but that also made it the most dangerous. He had already hit the place once; doing so again was a risk he had to take. With the energon taken from here he would have an opportunity to travel further away to draw suspicion away from the center of his activity.

It didn't take him long to find the access point he had cut out of the wall and hidden behind a stack of crates both outside and inside of the building. Carefully moving the crates to make as little noise as possible, the Maximal engineer squeezed his way into the building. Inside were stacks upon stacks of energon in its cubed storage form.

Moving along the walls, Rhinox further utilized the stealth skills Rattrap had taught him all those solar cycles ago to avoid being detected by the Vehicons walking their patrol inside the building. Pulling an energon laser used in the cutting of energon, the Maximal proceeded to slice off three millimeter thick slices off of the cubes that were facing him. Taking a whole cube or two would draw further suspicion, but such small slices from several random cubes would hardly be noticed. As the slices of energon came free, he gently placed the panels in a stack at his side. Once satisfied with the quantity he gathered he put the tool away and gently packed the energon in his subspace pocket at well.

Back outside the building Rhinox checked for any approaching Vehicons before running back across the street to his access point. The thump of something heavy landing behind him made him stop as he was pulling the access point open, barely able to turn around as the energy shot hit him which sent the Maximal skidding across the ground harshly, his torso armor smoldering from the hit. With a groan Rhinox stumbled to his feet as the huge Vehicon marched closer to him, its weaponry poised to fire upon him again.

Rhinox glanced down at the access point and up at the towering Vehicon before him and quickly made a decision. He reached into his subspace pocket, pulling out one of the energon plates he had stored there, and ran towards the Vehicon. As he approached, the Vehicon 's blasters began to charge up in preparation of being fired. Rhinox flung the plate at the 'Con as he leapt into the access point, landing harshly below. The shots that the Vehicon had began to fire hit the flying energon plate causing it to explode violently, destroying everything within the area above.

With a groan, Rhinox stumbled into his beast mode and attempted to make as quick of a get away from the area as possible, despite the pain. Taking a confusing path, in case of any followers, Rhinox eventually made it back to his little home. With more of a groan than a roar he transformed back into his robotic form and began to unload the energon onto a nearby table.

A powerful jolt of pain shot through him as his temporal device began to spark violently, causing him to stumble to the ground. Breathing heavily as he rested against the legs of his worktable, Rhinox tried to reach out for the laser screwdriver that had fallen off of the table when he hit it on his way to the ground. Confusion gripped him as he realized that in his blind search for the tool had turned up nothing, not even the floor next to him. Opening his optics, Rhinox was shocked to discover his hand and arm flickering in and out of existence.

* * *

When she became aware of herself, she was doubled over and voiding what energon she had ingested out of her system. Apparently prepared for this Airazor was kneeling down next to her, mumbling soothingly to her as she gently patted the younger Maximal's head. When Ruby looked up they were almost to the bridge. The others must have found her on their way back.

Cheetor had run over to the scanner section of the holo-table and began imputing commands as Rattrap and Tigatron were escorting Black Arachnia. Airazor gently sat Ruby down in Rhinox's usual seat to help keep her steady as the ship shook around them.

Looking around at the others as they all watched the holo-screen as Optimus Primal bravely flew the stasis pod into the alien planet buster; Ruby realized that they were probably feeling as helpless as she was. The only one that could save them now was Primal and she knew that he would not be coming back as he was from his mission.

Checkmate?

**Author's note: I do not own the show.**

Yes, another short chapter. Two whole episodes and really this was all I could think of without straying from the story.


End file.
